


Embers of Humanity

by Smiling_Seshat



Series: OC-Insert works [2]
Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Androids and Humans Meet, Culture Shock, Dimension Travel, F/M, Fish out of Water, Fix-It, Humans in Nier, Isekai, M/M, Self-Insert, Transmigration
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-01
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2020-04-06 03:52:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19054693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smiling_Seshat/pseuds/Smiling_Seshat
Summary: An incident at the CERN causes a group of people to be sent to another dimension. Within a day, a squad of YoRHa soldiers find them and escort them to one of their orbital bases.Two years later, the commander of YoRHa finally allows a few of the humans down to Earth to see what has become of their planet, nearly ten thousand years in the future.





	1. Chapter 1

Max was leaving the cafeteria when he heard someone calling for him:  
  
“Maxime!”  
  
It was Doctor Henri Francis, an old man in his fifties with a large beer gut and stark white hair. The man was standing in the hallway with Hélène Altanov, and behind the two was a large window with an impressive view of Planet Earth.  
  
The man said something unintelligible to his companion and then hurried over to Max.  
  
“Did you check your email?” asked the old man.  
  
Max shook his head. _“Non, m’sieur.”_  
  
Judging by Henri Francis’ expression, the message Max should have received was a good one.  
  
“The commander is allowing us back down on Earth!” the man exclaimed, ridiculously giddy.  
  
Max’s brows rose. “Really? I thought we’d be stuck here until we’re old and grey.”  
  
Doctor Francis chuckled. “By that metric, I already qualify to leave!”  
  
While they’d been talking, Hélène had walked over to listen in on their conversation.  
  
Hélène was a statuesque young woman in her late twenties, the kind who placed a lot of importance on appearance. But nowadays she had been forced to relax her standards, mostly because it was too difficult to access the makeup and body products and fashionable clothing she was used to.  
  
Honestly, Max was intimidated by Hélène and her cold, demeaning attitude, so he generally stayed clear from her.  
  
“Then are we all allowed to leave?” he asked Doctor Francis, his tone a little too eager.  
  
“Only three of us,” the man admitted. “You, me, and one of the children.”  
  
“And of course,” added Hélène, disdainful, “no women are allowed on Earth.”  
  
Max winced. He wanted to say something reassuring, but… she was right.  
  
Two years ago, there had been an incident at the CERN which had created an enormous hole in space and time, sending the Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest particle accelerator at 27 kilometres, and the people near it to another place entirely. A mix of scientists, students, janitors, desk workers and other random people had ended up nearly ten thousand years in the future. Even worse, it was a dystopian future. By the time the group of people had been rescued by a squad of androids working for a pro-human organisation called YoRHa, at least a hundred people had died.  
  
The remaining men and women had been brought to the Bunker, an orbital base from which orders were given to the android fighters on Earth. They had met the commander, and had received the most disturbing news of all: Humans had been extinct for over seven thousand years, and the CERN group were all that remained of their species.  
  
With their miraculous appearance, for the first time in several millennia, there was hope for the revival of humanity.  
  
But unfortunately, the CERN, one of the world's most famous centres of scientific research, was a male-dominated facility and women constituted less than a third of the group. Most of the women were innocent citizens who just happened to live near the LHC and had been teleported along with it. The relative rarity and the fact that women had less gametes than men made them a precious commodity, and meant that women like Hélène would never be allowed to return to Earth. The risk was too great.  
  
For most people, being unable to return to Earth didn’t matter, since they didn't care for this future full of murderous machines. They preferred remaining in space where it was safe. But for people like Max, Doctor Francis and Hélène, there was a desperate need to head to their home planet, away from the stifling atmosphere of YoRHa’s headquarters.  
  
It was too dangerous, so Commander White, the android in charge, had always cautioned them against it. Until now.  
  
“… The commander is starting a video conference in an hour,” said Doctor Francis after an awkward pause. “If you want to read that email and familiarise yourself with the situation, then you might want to do that now. So, uhhh, I guess I’ll see you then.” He glanced at Hélène with discomfort and left.  
  
“He’s a coward,” said the young woman once Doctor Francis was out of sight. “I can’t believe I used to respect the man.”  
  
“Uh-huh.” Max was trying to find a way to leave without appearing supremely rude.  
  
“If this entire situation hadn’t happened,” Hélène continued, glaring in the direction Doctor Francis had disappeared, “I would have my doctorate by now. I’d probably be working for that idiot, too.”  
  
Max fidgeted, uncomfortable.  
  
He didn’t really _know_ Hélène. He knew her name and they might occasionally say ‘ _bonjour’_ to each other in the hallways, but they never talked. That was mostly because of their contrasting personalities and the age difference—Hélène was nearly thirty while Max was seventeen, having been the third youngest of the displaced humans at the age of fifteen, two years ago.  
  
So even though she was speaking with him, he really didn’t want to talk to her any longer than he had to.  
  
“I need to go check that email,” he said hesitantly, shifting in place. “So, _au revoir._ ”  
  
And with that abrupt goodbye, he left.  
  
When he was nearly out of sight, he heard her mutter to himself:  
  
“Cowards, all of them.”  
  
  
  
  


 

-x-x-x-

  
  
  
  
  
  
The Bunker was a large facility capable of housing over a thousand androids, though YoRHa didn't even possess half that many androids. A few of the humans lived on the top floor and were kept strictly separate from the androids, but the majority of the humans had been given their own orbital base, repurposed from a research facility, and had created a community there with the freedom to do what they wanted.  
  
Max was one of the rare humans who hadn't been interested in leaving the Bunker, even if it meant he had to stay hidden until the commander was confident enough to allow her android troops to see a human. Only a select few amongst YoRHa were even aware that there were humans in the Bunker.  
  
Maxime’s room was identical to every other room in the Bunker: A bed, a few shelves, a desk, a closet and a terminal.  
  
He was currently sitting on his bed with a pod floating in front of him. They were both waiting for the commander’s call, which was due any minute.  
  
Max brushed a hand through his curly hair, trying to make it lie flat, but it just wasn’t possible without a specialized hair product. The corkscrew curls, each large enough to slip a finger through, were pointing outward in every direction as if he’d just been electrocuted. The fact that his wide green eyes made him look constantly surprised did not help in making him seem serious.  
  
“Statement: Personal grooming is currently irrelevant.”  
  
Max glared at the pod. “It’s a human thing. I can’t look like an idiot in front of White.”  
  
He did not explain that one of the reasons he was trying to brush his hair into order was that the commander was very, _very_ pretty. It might be pointless to make an effort, considering she was an android, but he couldn’t help it.  
  
His type, be it male or female, was strong, confident and intelligent, with a preference towards tall people. Commander White fulfilled every one of those requirements.  
  
“Query: Is this another human mating ritual?”  
  
Max’s face turned a dark red and he kicked at the pod. Unfortunately, the pod was faster and moved out of the way.  
  
“Shut up!”  
  
He should never have explained how flirting worked.  
  
At that moment, the pod’s projector turned on and a screen appeared in the air showing Commander White. Max, who still had a foot extended, was caught by surprise and fell off the bed.  
  
“Are you all right?” asked the commander.  
  
Max pushed his hair out of his face and looked up towards the pod’s camera. “Oh, _ouais ouais_ , I’m fine.” He sat back on his bed, posture rigid. “And how are you, C-Commander?”  
  
“My current state is at peak efficiency,” she said. “But that is not why I am calling you. Have you received my message?”  
  
Max nodded, scratching the back of his neck. “Y-Yeah. You’re allowing us back on Earth.”  
  
The android nodded. “Correct. With the birth of yet another child this morning, I am now confident enough in the viability of the artificial wombs to allow you the freedom you have been requesting. I am sorry to have forced you to remain here so long, but I didn't want to allow you to risk your life until I could be sure that the human species is no longer at risk of becoming extinct again. Should your outing prove successful, I'll progressively allow more humans the opportunity to leave.”  
  
That was impressive, for her. In the first few months after the arrival of Max and the others at the Bunker, she’d been almost fanatical about their safety, really smothering them. It was only after the first few babies had been born via artificial wombs that she’d begun to relax.  
  
Speaking of: Artificial wombs were one of the inventions of the future that Max was most grateful for. They were spherical and the size of a suitcase. Thanks to them, no woman amongst the group of humans would be forced to undergo a pregnancy just because of how few people were left. In this futuristic age, the advanced technology meant that all that was needed were gametes from a woman and a man, and then the artificial womb would do the rest.  
  
There was a special room filled them where foetuses were growing. Sometimes, Max visited the place out of curiosity.  
  
"Hélène is really angry about it," said Max, scratching his neck and trying to look away from the commander's distracting face. "She understands why she can't go yet" —Hélène had seen machines massacring every human on sight, that day the Large Hadron Collider and anyone nearby had been dislocated through time— "but I think that she's starting to lose patience."  
  
It made sense. Hélène was stuck at the Bunker, which was entirely monochrome and had bad ventilation because androids didn't need to breathe. It was a suffocating atmosphere, which was why most of the humans had left to go to the orbital base given to them by the Army of Humanity. It was a much more pleasant place to live in.  
  
Henri Francis had stayed at the Bunker because he felt safer surrounded by androids. Max had stayed because... reasons. _(The commander is really pretty, okay?!)_  
  
And as for Hélène, no one quite knew, and she had never bothered to explain why she didn't want to join the other people in forming a community.  
  
"I'll talk to her," said Commander White. "I can understand her frustration, but I don't want to allow too many humans down on Earth at the same time. If something were to happen to you, I could never forgive myself."  
  
Max's entire face went red when he heard that last sentence, even though he _knew_ that the 'you' she meant was the entire group of humans, and not just himself.  
  
He cleared his throat, desperately wishing she hadn't noticed anything strange. “So when will I be allowed to...”—He nearly said ‘leave’, and changed his mind at the last moment.—“… fly down there?”  
  
“In three days’ time. You shall be escorted by Attack Squadron Omega.”  
  
“Those are the ones who saved us and brought us here in the first place, aren’t they?” he asked.  
  
He remembered it like it had been yesterday. The group of people had found refuge in an abandoned building, but the machines had found them and begun to kill them off one by one. Max’s father had been one of the first casualties, and Max had been—  
  
_Focus_.  
  
Attack Squadron Omega, a group of androids specializing in taking down large enemies, had noticed what was going on and saved the group before they were all decimated. Their leader, 8B, had been exceptionally kind to Max even though he’d been blind with grief and had lashed out at her numerous times.  
  
“Indeed.”  
  
The way she nodded approvingly made Max feel warm. He looked away, unable to hold her gaze.  
  
“As you are aware,” continued the commander, “my predecessors and I have worked to hide the extinction of humanity from our troops in order to prevent morale from dropping and to preserve the status quo. Even so, many have come to doubt the continued existence of humanity.” She paused. “Now that most of the humans are fluent in our language, we finally have an opportunity to offer our soldiers more than mere war-time propaganda.”  
  
Max frowned thoughtfully.  
  
“Ostensibly,” said Commander White, “you are headed to Earth to see the planet the invaders have taken from humanity. But your true purpose shall be to restore hope to our soldiers. You shall be accompanied by Henri Francis and one of the children, the 53rd born child, named Caleb.”  
  
‘Children’ was the term used for the babies grown in artificial wombs in an effort to revive the human species. They were cared for by an android type that had been specifically created last year for helping in the nurturing and upbringing of human babies. They were the F models, short for ‘Fosterer'.  
  
Sure, some of the people from the CERN group had agreed to rear the babies themselves, but the commander was creating more newborns in such a state of frenzy that there were simply too many children to care for. Hence the need for the Type F units. They did a lot of the unpleasant work, such as changing nappies and cleaning regurgitated milk, and also had access to a database of health information on humans in case anything were to happy.  
  
“Is it a good idea to bring a baby along?” asked Max doubtfully.  
  
After all, the entire planet was an active war zone with androids fighting against machine lifeforms. Max was no expert, but even he knew that it was no place for a child.  
  
“It is necessary, if distasteful,” said White. “We must test if our vaccines work. Illnesses are capable of killing large amounts of humans, so we need to find a way to test how dangerous it is to head down to Earth. The tests conducted so far have been done in an orbital station, and they cannot fully reproduce the conditions found on Earth. The baby is amongst the oldest at nearly two years of age and is in perfect health. He will serve as an adequate test subject.”  
  
Max’s frown deepened, all thoughts on how pretty the commander was disappearing in an instant. “It’s a _baby_. It’s not a test subject and it’s too young to consent to risking its life like this.”  
  
It didn't help that she was referring to it as a number and not by its name. Sure, there was a reason why the children were numbered; over two hundred had been born since Max and his group had donated gametes for the cause, and while every baby had a name, they also needed a number to make administration easier. Still, the need for them to be numbered didn't stop it from feeling vaguely wrong.  
  
Commander White cocked her head to the side, unaffected. “The two gene donors have given their permission. While I understand your worries, the decision has already been made. If it helps, the baby will only stay a day or two before being sent home.”  
  
Something inside Max curdled and died. He had known that she followed a strictly utilitarian decision-making process, but her pretty face and obvious worship of the human species had made her more unsavoury traits easy to overlook. In hindsight, he shouldn’t have expected any empathy from her; she was an android, for Pete’s sake, and robots didn’t have feelings.  
  
“W-Well, I still think it’s a bad thing to do,” he said defensively.  
  
“Your complaint has been noted. Anything else?”  
  
He remained silent.  
  
“Good. You shall remain on Earth for one month, a duration you can shorten or lengthen at your discretion. 8B and her squad will be protecting you at all times. During your stay, certain things will be expected of you. I am sending you a list right now, but here are the most important ones: You cannot tell anyone how many humans there are, as it would contradict the narrative I disseminated previous to your group’s discovery. You cannot tell anyone that the humans reside on two orbital bases instead of on the moon. You are also not allowed to reveal that you have been on Earth before or that the machine lifeforms killed many within your group the last time you were down there.”  
  
At the word ‘killed’, Max tightened his hands into fists.  
  
“What about food?” he asked. “Will the F unit take care of that?”  
  
“You will have access to one month’s worth of food reserves. If you would like something more fresh, you can ask one of your guards. Our nearest fields are too far north, so fresh fruits, grains and vegetables will not be available, but there are enough wild animals if you wish for an additional source of protein. There will be more details about your trip in the information packet I am sending you now.”  
  
The commander didn’t look like she was mailing any such packet. She just continued staring at him impassively.  
  
“… You don’t look like you’re sending me anything,” he pointed out after a moment of silence. He was embarrassed to put her on the spot, but it was kind of _true_.  
  
One of White’s brows rose. “I am an android. Unlike a human, I don’t need to look at a screen and type out a message. I can do it instantly, with just a thought. For example, I am currently in a video conference with you and in a call with Henri Francis about this trip, while also reading ground reports. I am capable of doing all these things at the same time.”  
  
Oh. How mortifying.  
  
“I believe you have all the necessary information,” said the commander. “Please be in front of the lift at 10 a.m. on the 14th of this month. Clothes cannot be washed so you must bring enough to last for thirty days. If you have any questions, mail them to me and a response will be sent within the hour.”  
  
“Right.”  
  
A minute ago, Max would have been happy beyond belief to have her permission to text her, but now he was mostly stuck on the fact that she planned to use a child as a test subject.  
  
“That is all,” concluded Commander White. She saluted. “Glory to Mankind.”  
  
And with those last words, the screen fizzled out as the pod’s projectors powered down, leaving Max alone in his room.  
  
Well, nearly alone.  
  
“Courting ritual: Failed.”  
  
“Shut up, you dumb pod!”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> French translations:
> 
> "Non, m'sieur.": This means 'No, sir.' The word 'm'sieur' is a shortened form of 'monsieur' meaning 'sir'. It's a lazy way of saying it, like saying 'yeah' instead of 'yes'.
> 
> Au revoir: Literally, 'Until re-see.' It means 'Until we see each other again.' 
> 
> Ouais Ouais: It means 'yeah yeah'. 'Ouais' is to 'oui' what 'yeah' is to 'yes'.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My portrayal of 8B is a little different from her personality in the game, because she has yet to run off with 64B and 22B.

On the 14th, Max was ready.  
  
He had packed three cases full of clothes after agonizing over what to bring. His pod had then made a ring of light appear around each case, causing them to float behind his back.  
  
Max was currently waiting in front of the lift, five minutes before the meeting time. Nobody else was there, which had him gritting his teeth.  
  
The Swiss were punctual people; it was part of the culture to be on time. For example, if a train were to be even two minutes late, there would be an announcement over loudspeaker and an explanation as to why. So Max was a bit disgruntled at waiting alone when he wasn’t even _that_ early.  
  
Finally, after a long, awkward moment spent staring at the white walls of the corridor, he heard a sound.  
  
“I’m here! I’m here!” called out the doddering Henri Francis.  
  
Unlike Max, the doctor had not bothered using his personal pod to carry his luggage. The man had only packed one bag and was dragging it along with one hand.  
  
“Are you sure you’ve got enough clothes in there?” asked Max, eyeing the old man’s case doubtfully.  
  
Doctor Francis returned the stare with a raised eyebrow. “And are you sure _you_ haven’t packed too much?”  
  
Max looked over his shoulder at the three cases full of clothes and realized that the man might have a point.  
  
“That’s in case I decide to prolong my stay!” he justified instead of admitting that he’d over-packed, bringing clothes for every kind of weather and temperature.  
  
The old man shook his head, full of disappointment. “Young people really don’t know how to pack anymore. You just bring your entire wardrobe with you.” He gestured at the lone case he had. “Take me, for example! I can stretch a pair of underwear for an entire week! You wear it a day, and then you turn it around to wear it in the other direction, and then you turn it inside out and wear it like that—”  
  
Max couldn’t help himself from twitching, utter revulsion appearing on his face.  
  
Doctor Francis noticed it and laughed.  
  
“Oh, you were joking,” Max said, relaxing. Sure, it was an outrageous lie, but for a second he’d been really convinced. After all, there existed some truly unhygienic people in the world.  
  
And just then Max remembered that he no longer lived in a place with _7 milliards d’habitants_ , and was instead one person out of a few hundreds.  
  
That reminder had him sagging, thinking of his mother, who must have returned from work and panicked when she hadn’t seen him. His siblings would probably have been hopeful at first, but after a day or two the tears would have come.  
  
“It’s a great way to make your clothes last longer,” continued Doctor Francis while waggling his eyebrows, completely oblivious to the sudden bleak turn of Max’s thoughts.  
  
“You’re disgusting, old man,” said Max half-heartedly.  
  
Henri Francis snorted. “I’m saving water.” He put a hand on his chest, faking a wounded look. “It’s good for the planet, you see.”  
  
Max nodded in an exaggerated way. “I see. But you know it’s been ten thousand years since the twenty-first century, and in between then and now the planet has probably had several Ice Ages.”  
  
The doctor lost his smile and cleared his throat. “Actually, an ice age lasts much longer than a few dozen thousands of years. For example, the Cryogenian period lasted around 85 million years. While we may have travelled to the future due to that unfortunate incident with the LHC, ten thousand years is not enough for our planet to have gone through multiple ice ages. Though if you are talking about glacial and interglacial periods, then it is possible that—”  
  
“Okay, okay, I get it!” exclaimed Max, waving his hands frantically to show how much he did _not_ want to receive a lecture right now. One of the only advantages of the CERN incident was that he no longer needed to go to school, and he did not want to be forced to listen to lectures ever again. Especially not when it was about something as boring as climate.  
  
Back in the twenty-first century, he’d been worried about climate change and had done his part by recycling, encouraging his parents to use the car less, and so on.  
  
But now, with the year being 11'945, the problems of the 21st century had come and gone a long time ago. Things like worrying over climate change now seemed… inconsequential.  
  
At that moment, a soft _‘ding!’_ came from the lift, and its doors slid open with the sound of displaced air.  
  
Inside was an android with white hair cut into a bob cut, wearing all black heavy armour with brown accents. Like most units, she wore what looked like a blindfold, but was in fact a high-tech visor. At her back floated four weapons, each illuminated by the tell-tale rings that negated gravity. Her pod was hovering above head-height, to her right.  
  
“Hi, 8B,” said Max.  
  
The android nodded at him, taking a step closer. “Hello, Maxime.” She then nodded at Doctor Francis. “Henri.”  
  
“Why, hello there,” said the doctor, leaving his suitcase behind and walking over to 8B with his hand held out.  
  
She hesitated, looking down at the appendage. Finally, she held her own hand out, and Doctor Francis showed her how it was done by clasping it and shaking.  
  
“This is how you greet people,” he explained. “I noticed you androids don’t really do it, but we do.”  
  
“It’s a formal way of greeting people,” Max corrected. “It’s how you would say hi to a superior or to someone you don’t know. But giving someone a kiss on the cheek is how you greet them if you’re closer.” He thought of explaining that that was the case between two women or a man and a woman, and that two men would just greet each other with a few words and a pat on the back, but he felt that would be needlessly confusing, especially considering androids didn’t fully understand that there was on average a bit of a behavioural difference between the sexes. “Normally, you give three cheek kisses. For example, if a friend of a friend is introduced, then it’s considered a little rude to shake their hand, so you’d give them three kisses on the cheek. And if it’s a close friend, then you can still give three kisses, but nearly everyone just gives one, because you’re allowed to do a shorter version with a friend.”  
  
“And if you’re saying goodbye,” continued Doctor Francis, “then you’d shake hands with a person who don’t know well or you have a professional relationship with, but if it’s a friend then you can give them one kiss on the cheek or wave. And if you’re greeting or saying goodbye to someone very close to you, then you might even give them a hug.”  
  
There was a moment of silence as 8B digested the information. Then, she turned to Max and held out her hand.  
  
With a proud little smile, he took hold of it. They shook.  
  
After 8B let go of Max’s hand, she said: “The squad is waiting for you in the hangar with Caleb and his minder. We will be heading there now, and one last briefing will be given out before we leave.”  
  
Max frowned. “But… to get to the hangar, we need to go to a level full of androids who could see us...”  
  
Two years ago, when 2B and her squad had saved Max and the other humans and had brought them to the Bunker, the commander had ordered all the androids there to remain confined to their rooms so they wouldn’t see the humans. That was because for years, the commander had been sustaining a lie about humanity living on the moon, and so she didn’t want proof of anything contradicting that to be spread. And even afterwards, Commander White had ensured that as few androids as possible knew humans were on the Bunker, afraid of what might happen if the wrong android got their hands on the information and used it for nefarious purposes.  
  
“It’s fine,” said Doctor Francis. “Didn’t you read your information packet? Our mission is to bring up morale and spread hope, since we're now finally capable of speaking the local language well enough to communicate. It’s mentioned in the information packet that White hopes we’ll be noticed by someone while heading to the hangar. Our mission doesn’t start on Earth, Maxime. It’s starting here, right now.”  
  
Max winced. The information packet was fifteen pages long and had no pictures. He’d read the first six pages before boredom had made him stop.  
  
“Ah, I just forgot.” He laughed nervously and hoped no one had noticed his confusion.  
  
8B gestured towards the lift, and both Max and Henri Francis walked in. She was the last one to enter, and she pressed on the button labelled ‘1’. It was the level where the hangar was found, and other than having several bedrooms for various androids, it was also where the command room was. All the Operators worked from the command room, and it was where Commander White gave orders to the troops.  
  
The doors slid shut and the lift descended.  
  
“So...” said Max in the silence, “we’ll be accompanied by nine androids, right?”  
  
8B nodded. “Five of them are from the original squad that you met two years ago. Then there are two you haven’t met yet which are replacing squad members on another mission. Lastly, there is me and the unit caring for Caleb.”  
  
“Who are the two replacements?” asked Max.  
  
“11B, who usually works alone or in a duo, and 1D, who has just received a new body after a difficult mission destroyed her last one.”  
  
“D?” repeated Max. Most of the androids he had interacted with were Type B or Type O units. He didn’t think he had ever met a Type D. “What does that stand for?”  
  
“Defender,” answered 8B. “Type Ds are designed to be sturdy and are capable of taking hits an ordinary android can’t. They are ideal for any mission requiring the protection of precious cargo. They usually guard supplies being sent to the Bunker and the moon, but can be sent out on other missions from time to time.”  
  
Doctor Francis was the one to speak up next: “Your squad will have six Battle units and you, and there’ll be one Defender unit, then?”  
  
“Correct.”  
  
The lift stopped and its doors opened, revealing a long hallway running perpendicular to them, and right in front of them was a large window with a view of space, full of twinkling stars.  
  
8B exited the lift first, turning to the left, and both Max and Doctor Francis followed her.  
  
The doctor was having some trouble following, as he walked with a slight limp. Due to old age, a bone he’d broken two years ago hadn’t healed all that well and made it difficult for him to walk at the same brisk pace as 8B was setting.  
  
To her credit, 8B noticed it immediately, and slowed down appropriately. Max smiled, but didn’t thank her for the courtesy, as Doctor Francis was easily offended when it came to his leg and didn’t like feeling like an invalid.  
  
Their slow pace meant that when they finally came into view of two unknown androids talking near one of the rooms, the two androids had ample time to notice them and stare curiously.  
  
Doctor Francis received the most stares. While Max was young enough to pass for an android, Henri Francis was old and overweight, and walked with a limp. Not exactly someone who could pass for an android fighting in a war.  
  
Once they were within three metres of the two unknown androids, one of the two gathered the courage to say something:  
  
“8B?” she called out hesitantly.  
  
The android was dressed in black and wore one of those visors that looked like it was made of cloth. She had to be a combat unit, though it was impossible to tell which kind. Perhaps a Type B like 8B?  
  
Her companion was an Operator with short hair, dressed exactly like every other operator and with the traditional veil hiding the lower part of her face.  
  
“Who are these androids?” continued the unnamed combat unit, looking at Max and Doctor Francis curiously.  
  
“These are Maxime Bucher and Henri Francis. They came from the Moon Base and stopped here to refuel before heading down to Earth.”  
  
The unnamed android frowned while her silent companion gasped. “The Moon? Then that means...” Her gaze when from 8B to Max and the doctor. “You’re humans?!”  
  
Max fidgeted, scratching the back of his neck.  
  
While he knew this was part of the commander’s plan, he was still uncomfortable being scrutinized in such a way.  
  
According to what little he had read in the information packet, today marked the start of an effort to introduce humanity to androids and vice-versa. From now onwards, Max could expect a lot of gasps and exclamations whenever people, no, _androids_ , found out he and the doctor were humans. After all, humans had been extinct for so long that even with the commander perpetuating a lie to keep androids fighting for humanity’s cause, there was still the fact that pretty much no android operating today had ever met a real, living person.  
  
So it should come as no surprise that when 8B nodded to confirm the unnamed android’s assumption, the two units immediately crowded close to Doctor Francis and Max.  
  
“I’ve never seen a human before!” exclaimed the combat unit.  
  
As for the operator, she was less loud but just as emotional: “I’d heard rumours of increased human activity, but I hadn’t dared hope to see any human setting foot here...”  
  
The combat unit pressed so close to Max that he had to take a step back to regain some space.  
  
“I’ve got so many questions!” she said, not seeming to have noticed Max’s discomfort. “For example, can you tell me about ‘family’—”  
  
“Cease.”  
  
Max turned around and saw that 8B had been to one who had spoken up.  
  
Her face was entirely blank, but the fact that she was the most heavily armoured person in the room and had four weapons floating at her back gave her enough of an intimidation factor for the two unnamed androids to back off.  
  
“We’re expected elsewhere,” said 8B, “and we’re on a tight schedule. We don’t have time for chitchat.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
The combat unit looked so disappointed that if she hadn’t invaded Max’s personal space a few seconds ago, he would’ve taken pity on her. As it was, he was more focused on joining up with the rest of 8B’s squad and finally returning to Earth, even if it wasn’t _his_ Earth.  
  
“We won’t keep you, then,” said the combat unit.  
  
8B had already started walking away at a brisk pace, completely forgetting about poor Doctor Francis who had to hurry after her.  
  
As for Max, he turned to the two unnamed androids and waved. There was a short pause before they waved back enthusiastically.  
  
He grinned and jogged over after 8B.  
  
“Why didn’t we talk to them a little longer?” he asked when he had caught up to 8B. “Our schedule isn’t that strict, and if our purpose is to bring up morale, wouldn’t it have helped to speak with them a little?”  
  
“It is precisely because of our mission that I cut the conversation short,” said 8B.  
  
Meanwhile, Doctor Francis had gotten fed up with lugging his suitcase around and was asking his pod to make it float.  
  
“By leaving now and saying we’re in a hurry,” continued 8B, “I’ve ensured that they will immediately tell everyone on the Bunker about the two humans they’ve just met, and inform them that if they want to see you, they should run to the hangar before you leave. That way, the news of your presence will spread much faster.”  
  
That reasoning sounded convoluted and also relied a little too much on the two unnamed androids being the kind that would gossip. Considering YoRHa was a military organization with such a thing as confidential info, it was possible that the two androids wouldn’t tell anyone about the humans they had encountered, in case the information was meant to be secret.  
  
But Max trusted 8B to know what she was doing, so he didn’t ask any questions.  
  
Instead, he just followed her lead, figuring that if she was right, then there would probably be several androids heading over to the hangar right now for a glimpses of a human being.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> French translations:
> 
> 7 milliards d'habitants  
> 7 000 000 000 people
> 
> In French, it goes like this:
> 
> Un = 1  
> Dix = 10  
> Cent = 100  
> Mille = 1 000  
> Million = 1 000 000  
> Milliard = 1 000 000 000  
> Billion = 1 000 000 000 000  
> Billiard = 1 000 000 000 000 000  
> Trillion = 1 000 000 000 000 000 000  
> Trilliard = 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
> 
> The numbering system in British English is pretty similar, though US English has less words in common.


	3. Chapter 3

Hélène stabbed a potato and brought it up to her mouth without bothering to cut it into manageable pieces. She bit off a third of it and chewed, a frown on her face.  
  
She was eating her evening meal alone at a table in the cafeteria, having decided to stay away from others. Ever since the announcement that morning that Henri and Maxime would be heading down to Earth, she had been in a poor mood. When she had complained to Laura, a few hours earlier, her friend hadn’t understood.  
  
Few people would. After all, most of those implicated in the CERN incident had been thoroughly traumatized by the loss of their homes and loved ones, as well as the massacre committed by the machines that had found them upon their arrival in the future, before a squad of YoRHa soldiers had come to the rescue.  
  
Nobody wanted to return to this hostile Earth. So no, Laura hadn’t understood Hélène’s frustration.  
  
Well, Henri and Maxime might understand, but their motives for returning to Earth were entirely different. Henri had no survival instincts and wanted to do research on the machines, prioritizing his scientific curiosity over his safety. As for Maxime, there seemed to be no true reason for him to head to Earth. The body of the boy’s father had been retrieved a day after the massacre of two years ago, so it wasn’t like Maxime wanted to return to mourn over the remains.  
  
Hélène was of the opinion that Maxime wanted to go to Earth because he was a reckless teenager, and that was it.  
  
She sighed, and finished the potato speared on her fork.  
  
The cafeteria was entirely empty save for her, but that wasn’t too unusual. Only nine humans lived permanently on the Bunker, while the others had moved to a separate orbital base to rebuild some semblance of a community. It wasn’t exactly Geneva Version Two, but it was nice. Hélène preferred living at the Bunker, though.  
  
She was currently eating a meal consisting of fish, potatoes and carrots. All of it had been provided by androids down on Earth, and had then been sent into space before ending up in her plate.  
  
Absentmindedly, she wondered if androids did fish farming and raised them in enclosures, or if they were forced to spend hours at a lake or river, fishing food for hungry humans.  
  
The door of the cafeteria opened, and Hélène raised her eyes to see who was coming in.  
  
It was ten o’clock, so nobody else should be eating this late, and yet…  
  
“Commander!” exclaimed Hélène, surprised.  
  
The leader of YoRHa, a tall woman with long white hair in a pony-tail and wearing immaculate clothes with her organization’s symbol on the sleeves of her upper arms, had just entered the cafeteria. It was extremely surprising, as she rarely left the command center a few floors down, always too busy to leave her duties.  
  
Commander White nodded. “Miss Altanov.”  
  
Having a hunch that the android wished to talk, Hélène gestured at the seat opposite her. The commander accepted, walking over and sitting down so they were face to face.  
  
“Is something wrong?” asked Hélène.  
  
“Not wrong, exactly,” said the commander.  
  
Hélène plopped a slice of carrot into her mouth. It was so tender she didn’t even need to chew; she just swallowed it immediately.  
  
The commander watched, not saying anything.  
  
When Hélène had finished swallowing her food, her eyes flickered up to meet White’s. “Max tattled to you, didn’t he?”  
  
The commander didn’t deny it. “You chafe at the restrictions you are under. It is understandable.”  
  
Hélène’s face twisted and her lips pursed. “I’ve never encountered sexism, you know? Even when I started studying Physics, and most of the students were boys, nobody ever made comments. In fact, they liked it when girls where interested enough to study in that faculty.” She stabbed another potato with her fork. “You were judged according to your skills.” Twirling her fork, she raised it to her face and bit into the potato. Mouth full, she continued: “But here, the only thing you androids care about is that there are less women than there are men, and a third of the women you got are old and infertile.” She swallowed, keeping her eyes down. She didn’t look at the commander to avoid losing her nerve. “I already gave you one ovary. I knew why you needed it and I agreed to give it you.” Finally, she looked into the commander’s eyes. “Even if I went to Earth and got myself killed by machines, you’d still have thousands of my eggs, enough to make all the babies you want without needing _me_.”  
  
White remained passive. “If you truly insist on going, I shan’t stop you. You know that, don’t you?”  
  
Silence.  
  
“I have kept every human out of danger for the past two years,” continued the commander, “until I could be sure that the artificially grown babies are viable and that I would not need for the women to sacrifice their bodily autonomy for the sake of their species’ survival.”  
  
“My mind understands your reasons and agrees with your logic,” said Hélène, “but my heart doesn’t. It sees a cage.”  
  
The commander steepled her fingers. “On the 14th, Henri Francis and Maxime Bucher shall head down to Earth and bring hope to our troops directly. It will be the first step of many, and if no one is hurt during that outing, you can expect to be allowed down soon enough.”  
  
Hélène snorted.  
  
“I understand that it is not much,” White went on, “but until that time comes, I wish to offer you some sort of compensation.”  
  
Narrowing her eyes, Hélène set her fork down and leaned forward. “What is this about?”  
  
Commander White smiled. “I believe it is time for a real human to transmit a message from the Council of Humanity to our soldiers, don’t you think?”  
  
  
  


 

-x-x-x-

  
  
  
  
  
  
On the 14th of March 11’945, while Henri Francis and Maxime Bucher were headed down to Earth, Hélène was preparing for an important speech.  
  
“Query: Does Hélène wish to begin her broadcast?” asked the pod floating by her side.  
  
Usually Hélène didn’t have a pod. Not every human had been given one, as YoRHa had a limited supply and they were expensive to make. But for today, she had received access to a pod capable of spoofing her signal and making it seem as though she were sending a message from the Moon Base.  
  
“Not yet,” she said.  
  
The broadcast would be audio only. Technically, there was no reason for her to have taken a shower beforehand and to have dressed in her nicest clothes. After all, no one would notice a difference. But looking nice made her feel more confident, so she’d ensured she looked her best.  
  
Commander White had given her rather vague instructions, but no particular script to follow, as the broadcast was meant to sound spontaneous. It had to be different from the automated messages that had been sent until now. It had to be less stiff, and instead sound more… natural. Organic.  
  
Heh.  
  
She looked down at the note in her hands. It contained a list of points she had to address in her speech. Anything else was up to her.  
  
The situation was stressful, especially considering how many androids would be listening.  
  
She took a deep breath.  
  
“Please begin the countdown, Pod.”  
  
“Countdown for broadcast: Initiated.”  
  
The pod oriented itself towards her.  
  
“Three…  
  
“Two…  
  
“One...”  
  
And then, a small light turned on. The broadcast had begun.  
  
She smiled, straightening her back. “Hello. This is a message from the Council of Humanity. The usual announcer has taken a leave of absence, and I will be replacing him for the time being. Please excuse any mistakes as I adjust to the position.”  
  
Hélène had to remember to occasionally stutter as she spoke. She was usually a good public speaker, but in this situation it was important to appear different from the automated, bland announcements that the androids usually heard. Sounding a little timid and unsure would work well.  
  
“I would like to thank all the brave androids fighting for our sake. I know it’s hard and unpleasant. I appreciate your sacrifice, as do all the other humans on the moon.” She checked her paper to remember the other android types. “Not only the fighters, though. I also want to thank the Operators, the Scanners, the Healers, and all the others. Fighters might be more visible, but that does not diminish the efforts of all the other androids working tirelessly to bring an end to this war. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.”  
  
And then she added the parting words:  
  
“Three humans are heading down to Earth as we speak to witness your efforts first hand." She paused. "Glory... to Mankind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The wifi at my place is dead, so updating became a little more difficult. I have to rely on public wifi to get anything done... :'(


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have two more pre-written chapters left which will be posted on the 3rd and the 10th of August. After that, updates will be unpredictable, but I will continue only posting on a Saturday whenever I have something to post, so that people at least vaguely know when to expect an update.

Accessing the hangar meant passing through the medical bay, where defective androids were repaired if they had been hacked or if they had damaged components. Max didn’t know much about the place, as he had only seen it in person once, two years ago, when he had been brought to the Bunker.  
  
When the elevator opened and 8B led them through the medical bay, Max noticed that there were only two patients today, each surrounded by two or three Healer units. At the other end of the room, standing near the door leading to the hangar, was a male android. He had to be a Scanner unit, since all other types were female, and the android looked suspiciously as if he were waiting for something.  
  
That impression was confirmed when the android seemed to practically skip in place the moment he noticed 8B, Max and Doctor Francis.  
  
The doctor chuckled. “It seems the rumour mill has been doing a fine job. I believe we have our first fan.”  
  
All the other androids in the medical bay stared at them as they passed, but none had the courage to ask 8B who she was accompanying. As for the lone Scanner unit, he waited patiently until 8B, Max and Henri Francis reached the hangar door, although it looked like it cost him. He was nearly bouncing with excitement.  
  
Max frowned, wondering why an android would have been programmed to react in such a way instead of standing still. There was no apparent use for such behaviour, but androids _had_ been created to be similar to humans, so perhaps they’d been programmed with some simulacrum of excitement just to appear more human?  
  
From what he remembered, the number each android had related to their personality. There were several dozen available personality types, each with their pros and cons. Maybe giving the androids personality was a way to give YoRHa troops a diversity of thought processes? But that still didn’t explain why someone would have bothered programming pseudo-excitement into that Scanner model. Then again, the androids Max knew—the commander, 8B and her squad—had never displayed anything but perfect professionalism, so perhaps this Scanner model had been in the medical bay beforehand to fix a programming issue with his behaviour.  
  
“Is it true?!” exclaimed the Scanner unit once Max and his two companions were close enough.  
  
One of the Healer units nearby looked up curiously.  
  
“4S—” began 8B.  
  
“Are you really humans?” asked the Scanner unit, looking at both Max and Doctor Francis.  
  
Well, considering the android’s eyes were covered, it was difficult to know what he was looking at, but Max was pretty sure he was being stared at.  
  
“Of course we are,” said Henri Francis, jovial as ever. “I’m Henri, and my companions are Max and 8B. And who are you?”  
  
The android straightened and saluted. “I’m Unit Number 4. A Scanner model, sir. Glory to Mankind.”  
  
At that moment on the other side of the room, the lift where Max had just come from opened. Inside were a mix of Battle units and Operators. They exited the lift slowly, looking around, and the moment they noticed Max and Henri Francis, they sped up.  
  
8B had clearly noticed that too, but she ignored them. “We need to leave soon, and the rest of the squad is expecting us.” And with those parting words, she headed for the hangar doors.  
  
Max and Henri exchanged a glance, and then the doctor turned to the Scanner unit. “Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, 4S.” He held out his hand.  
  
Just as 8B had been, 4S was clueless. “Do you want me to scan it, sir?”  
  
Henri chuckled. “Ah, no.” He gently grasped 4S’ hand and shook it. “That’s just how we humans say hello and goodbye. I explained it all to 8B just before, but—”  
  
“Doctor, we gotta go,” said Max, looking at the hangar doors which had already slid shut behind 8B.  
  
“Right, right.” The old man nodded to himself. “Have a good day, 4S.”  
  
4S gave a trembling smile, looking at the hand Henri had just touched. “Y-yeah...”  
  
Max hurried over to the hangar door, wanting to catch up to 8B as fast as possible, while Doctor Francis limped after him. The doors slid open the moment they detected movement.  
  
“Wait!” shouted a feminine voice from behind them.  
  
Max turned, and saw that an Operator was running towards him, followed by several other female androids. His moment of hesitation was all they needed to catch up.  
  
“Hi!” said the Operator. “Is it true that you two are humans?”  
  
She was focused mostly on Henri Francis. While Max was young and fit enough to not seem too out of place, Henri was a bit overweight, balding, and had facial hair, all of which was unusual enough to make it impossible for anyone to believe he might be an android.  
  
Max smiled politely, even as he worried that spending too much time talking would make him late. “Ah, yes, we are. Hello.”  
  
The android brought her clenched fists up to her chest, delighted. “That’s amazing! I’ve never heard of any humans coming here.”  
  
The androids that had already been in the medical bay had now taken an interest in the crowd forming around Max and Henri, and so they came closer. At the same time, the lift at the far end of the room opened once again, revealing even more androids in search for humans.  
  
“I’m Operator 5O,” said the android. She saluted. “Glory to Mankind.”  
  
That salute was then repeated by all the other androids that had been pressing closer to Max and Doctor Francis.  
  
Max’s smiled faltered, and he took a step back, through the threshold leading to the hangar. “… Nice to meet you.”  
  
And it _was_ nice. Androids tended to be built to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible, so Max didn’t mind the eye-candy, but he was a little bit uncomfortable having his personal space breached so blatantly. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but his current situation made him emphasize with those who were.  
  
Doctor Francis must’ve noticed, because he placed himself slightly in front of Max, preventing the androids from coming even closer. “I’m sorry ladies, but we need to go or we’ll be late.”  
  
5O was devastated. “Do you really have to?”  
  
Henri was not immune to a pretty android in distress, but he remained firm. “We don’t have much time.”  
  
Indeed, 8B came back as he said those words. “We’re leaving in a few minutes. You’re expected.” She glared at the androids crowded around the doors and staring at the two humans. “And none of you are allowed to enter the hangar until we’ve left. Your presence is reducing mission efficiency.”  
  
Max and Doctor Francis both entered the hangar. The crowd of androids was left behind, unable to come closer yet unwilling to leave, so they remained in place and continued observing the first humans they had ever seen.  
  
The hangar was a large, rectangular room. The apparent wall facing the doors Max had just come through was not a wall, but an opening for androids to leave the Bunker and fly down to Earth. To do so, they used flight units, which were basically small and futuristic fighter jets the size of a paraglider that could only carry one android at a time. Unfortunately the flight units left most of the android’s upper body uncovered. For an android, that wasn’t a problem, but an ordinary human would either freeze to death or asphyxiate.  
  
A few flight units were already waiting on standby mode, but there were not enough, so some of the androids were retrieving more from the walls, where countless flight units were hooked up.  
  
Max easily recognized the one he would be flying in, because it looked very different from the flight units used by the androids. It resembled a sports car, though flatter and with wings instead of wheels.  
  
“7E will be giving you your trackers,” explained 8B. “While she goes through the safety procedures, I’ll be preparing the flight units with the others.”  
  
8B gestured towards a female android dressed in YoRHa’s heavy armament, with long red hair that reached her waist.  
  
When 7E noticed the attention, she gave a small smile and came closer. Max noticed that she was holding two harnesses, the kind used in rock-climbing or when going down a zip-line, which wound their way around the waist and each leg to hold the wearer securely in case of a fall.  
  
“Hello,” said 7E, her voice a pleasant alto. “I’m a Number 7 Type E. I’ll be part of your protection squad.”  
  
Both Max and Doctor Francis politely introduced themselves to her.  
  
Satisfied that they all knew each other, 8B said: “I’ll leave you to handle safety procedures, 7E.”  
  
7E nodded. “Thank you, captain.”  
  
As 8B walked away, 7E held out the two harnesses to Max and Henri. “Please put these on. They each contain a tracker for us to find you in case anything happens.”  
  
Max grabbed one and swiftly put it on. It wasn’t uncomfortable to wear, but the way it drew attention to his genitals by tightening around his thighs and waist was _not_ appreciated. Still, it wasn’t the first time he had had to wear this kind of harness, so he didn’t let it bother him too much.  
  
Doctor Francis needed a little longer to put his on, but he managed to finish a little moment after Max.  
  
Once they were done, 7E came close to tug at the harnesses and make a few adjustments to ensure nothing was too loose. Then she brought out several ropes, none longer than a meter, and tied them to the harnesses. Two ropes were tied to Max, and two others were tied to Henri. Afterwards, Max’s pod gently set down his luggage and used its claw-like hands to grasp the other end of the ropes attached to Max. Henri’s pod did the same for its owner.  
  
“What’s this for?” asked Max, poking at the ropes.  
  
“If anything happens that threatens the integrity of your air carrier,” said 7E as she pulled the ropes to see how well they held, “then you will be ejected for your own safety. If you were a YoRHa unit, you’d use your pod’s AGTs to slow your descent. Unfortunately, hanging for such a long period of time might be beyond your arms’ capacities, and that’s if you have fast enough reflexes to think of holding onto your pod. So we’re _physically_ tying you to your pod to make things easier.”  
  
Max nodded. But as Doctor Francis started asking about how much weight a pod could carry, Max’s attention began to wander. The back of his head was burning from the stares of the crowd of androids near the door, so he pretended to be focused on watching 8B and her squad-mates bring down more flight units.  
  
He recognized 22B, 64B and 3B, who had been part of 8B’s squad two years ago. They had rescued him and the other humans. As for the other androids, he had never met them before.  
  
“… and we might need oxygen tanks. If our plane gets destroyed at a high altitude, then we could suffocate before we make it to land,” Doctor Francis was saying.  
  
Max was listening to the conversation with half an ear.  
  
7E nodded at Henri. “Of course. In your aircraft there’s an oxygen reserve for each person that you’ll strap to your body. And as for temperature, the clothes you are wearing are made to adjust to optimum temperature, so if you do end up in the air at a high altitude, you won’t freeze. You just need to put on a helmet for additional head protection.”  
  
Max perked up, interested, and asked: “What about Caleb? The baby coming with us. What protective measures have been set in place for him?”  
  
“He’s currently waiting inside the air craft. You’ll be able to see him as soon as we open the doors. And as for the safety measures, well, as the information packet mentions, we’ve decided to...”  
  
  
  
  
  


 

-x-x-x-

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
5O was staring at the humans, so delighted she had to restrain herself from squealing. A few other Operators didn’t have the same self-control and were making their emotions clear.  
  
“It’s such a shame I didn’t get the opportunity to talk to them,” she told 4S.  
  
The Scanner unit had been talking with another Operator, 21O, about the humans. After 5O addressed him, he turned with a conspirational smile.  
  
“I got to talk to them!” he told her, voice low. “One of them even held my hand.”  
  
“Really?” said 5O, eyes wide. “What was it like?”  
  
“Warm,” he said dreamily. “I could feel his pulse.”  
  
5O’s eyelashes fluttered as she tried to imagine the feeling. “I’m so jealous...”  
  
He came a little closer. “Well, if you want, I can send you the recording of the conversation I had with them and the sensory feedback when the human touched my hand.”  
  
“Would you? That’s so kind. Do you mind if I share the recording with a few friends? They’d love to see a human!”  
  
“No problem.”  
  
They lapsed into silence and continued watching the humans.  
  
The android that had been helping the humans into safety harnesses seemed to have finished talking, and she went over to the strangely-shaped flight unit 5O assumed was for the humans. The long-haired android opened the door, revealing…  
  
“It’s a human juvenile!” 5O shouted, amidst excited shouting from the crowd of androids around her.  
  
She made her visor begin to record immediately, knowing she needed proof of this to show all her friends once she returned to her post.  
  
“It is _so_ small,” 4S whispered. “I wonder how old it is?”  
  
The other Operator, 21O, seemed just as fascinated. “Do you believe one of those humans is its… parent?”  
  
“I think this is the best day of my life,” said 5O.  
  
They all watched as the humans put on helmets and strapped themselves into the air craft. The androids working on the mission each entered their own flight units.  
  
5O and all the androids around her observed silently as the flight units left the Bunker, taking the humans with them.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
-x-x-x-  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
**Author's Note** : Every named character here is a canon character, except for the humans, of course!  
  
4S is android you can meet in the castle after the fall of YoRHa. 5O is an Operator whose name is on one of the rooms in the Bunker. And 21O, of course, is the Operator that works with 9S. As for the members of the squad protecting the humans, we’ve got 8B, 22B and 64B, who are each encountered in a quest that has you going on top of the Engels model in the city. 7E is part of the prologue and gets killed while in her flight unit. Two other members of the protection squad were mentioned in chapter 2, and their names are 11B and 1D. They are also encountered in the prologue. The other members of the squad haven’t been mentioned yet, but they are all canon characters too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every named character here is a canon character, except for the humans, of course!
> 
> 4S is android you can meet in the castle after the fall of YoRHa. 5O is an Operator whose name is on one of the rooms in the Bunker. And 21O, of course, is the Operator that works with 9S. As for the members of the squad protecting the humans, we’ve got 8B, 22B and 64B, who are each encountered in a quest that has you going on top of the Engels model in the city. 7E is part of the prologue and gets killed while in her flight unit. Two other members of the protection squad were mentioned in chapter 2, and their names are 11B and 1D. They are also encountered in the prologue. The other members of the squad haven’t been mentioned yet, but they are all canon characters too.


	5. Chapter 5

The trip down to Earth went well. Planes were nothing new to Max, as back before ending up in a world full of killer robots, he used to leave the country once or twice per year to visit family or do tourism. He didn’t have the slightest fear of flying.  
  
However, the weird car-sized airship transporting Max, Henri, Caleb and the F unit was not quite a plane. It was similar, but different. The airship felt like a mix between an aeroplane and a roller coaster.  
  
It flew, but it also moved a lot, dodging enemy fire and tanking what made it through.  
  
Max watched, slightly nauseous, as they ducked and weaved between flying machines while the surrounding flight units gunned down the opposition.  
  
Henri turned green, but did not vomit. As for Caleb, the child slept so deeply that none of the jostling woke him.  
  
On top of having windows to peer out of, the three humans were also privy to the official communications between members of the android squad. Said communications were being broadcast inside the aircraft, allowing Max to hear 8B issuing orders to her subordinates.  
  
“22B, your Ho229 cancellers are useless!” exclaimed 8B, her flight unit bright white against the black ones of her squad-mates. “Retreat to a safer distance and use your FFCS only!”  
  
“Y-Yes, captain!” said 22B.  
  
Being attacked by machine lifeforms had worried Max at first, until he had seen the androids’ competence first hand. After witnessing every approaching enemy be decimated for ten minutes straight without a noticeable increase in risk to his safety, he’d rapidly become bored. In movies, fight scenes never lasted this long.  
  
It seemed wrong to be bored when he was under attack, but that was exactly how Max felt. Even the trauma from two years ago was not enough for him to remain wary during the entire trip. He was too confident in his guards to feel much fear.  
  
The rest of the trip went just as well. The large amount of androids was excessive compared to the amount of machine lifeforms, and the worst thing to happen was to 22B, victim of a hit that broke the joint of her dorsal plastron, locking her in mobile configuration permanently. No one died or was hurt.  
  
During the last few minutes of flight, as they lowered slowly, Max got to see that they were flying over a large desert, full of remnants of large apartment buildings. Once upon a time, it must have been a thriving city. And then, humanity had died off, and changes in the temperature and ecosystem had led to desertification, turning what was once fertile land into dunes of sand that extended for kilometres.  
  
They continued flying, approaching the centre of the city, and dry sand slowly gave way to grassy earth and trees. Lots of trees.  
  
The trees were enormous, rising from between crumbling buildings and out of the broken cement of ancient roads. The trunks were so large that they had to be at least two hundred years old, and it would take a minimum of three or four grown men holding hands to hug the trees.  
  
“It looks beautiful, in a post-apocalyptic way,” said Henri, voice low.  
  
Indeed, it did. Two years ago, when Max and the other humans had first appeared in this future, this world, they’d appeared in the crumbling remains of Geneva, with a broken LHC and buildings that had been close enough to be fully or partially sucked into whatever time-traveling portal that freak accident had been. The place where they’d arrived had been overrun with extremely hostile machine lifeforms, and the only greenery had been weeds or small flowers. Nothing larger had been present, possibly cut down by machines or androids for ease of access. Max didn’t really know and he hadn’t thought to ask.  
  
“Yeah,” agreed Max. “I guess that without people cutting trees down, the trees can live long enough to be gigantic. _Pas d’humains, pas de déforestation._ ”  
  
Doctor Francis made a sound that sounded both like a hum and a grunt. “If you look closely at the trees, you’ll notice the growth isn’t natural for those particular species. A few months ago I read about it, and apparently after many plants and animals went extinct during the first machine wars, the species that remained evolved to take advantage of the space left and have grown larger. Some animal species have taken rather strange shapes. It’s really fascinating.”  
  
While the doctor might find it interesting, the only thing Max really thought about what that those trees in the city beneath him were as large as the ones in _Naruto_.  
  
“You could build some cool tree-houses in them,” said Max, non-committal.  
  
Henri chuckled.  
  
Finally, they reached their landing point: The roof of one of the tallest buildings around.  
  
Two humanoid figures were waiting on the edge of the roof already, looking unlike any androids Max had met until now. For one, they weren’t dressed in black.  
  
Well, technically, Commander White wasn’t dressed in black either, but as the leader of YoRHa’s forces, Max had always assumed it was normal she would use white clothes to distinguish herself, just like 8B’s flight unit was white so her squad-members could more easily notice her.  
  
Anyway, the two people on the roof were dressed in very drab brown cloaks with baggy clothes underneath. They attire looked like what you’d wear in a war-zone, where functionality and camouflage mattered more than style.  
  
  
  
Wait.  
  
  
  
Now Max felt stupid. The androids _were_ at war, fighting the machine lifeforms that served as soldiers for the illusive aliens that had attacked the Earth. He was so used to seeing android in skirts and heels that he had forgotten how serious the situation was. Technically, _all_ of Earth was a war-zone.  
  
Max had grown up in a peaceful country. Before arriving ten thousand years in the future, the worst event that had happened to him was the death of his great-grandmother. He was so used to a calm routine where nothing bad ever happened that sometimes… he just _forgot_. He forgot that things had changed, that most of humanity was dead, that his dad hadn’t even survived a day in the future before being killed by machines. He just… forgot.  
  
His biggest flaw was his complacency. Give Max a place to live and regular meals, as well as enough free time to use as he wanted, and he would be content to live out his days like that. No ambition, you could say.  
  
The flight units were the first to land, with the airship containing Max being the one to land last.  
  
Max unbuckled himself and looked at Caleb out of the corner of his eyes. The child was still sleeping soundly, surprisingly. The boy hadn’t even flinched when the change in altitude had made his ears pop. Usually children would cry in planes, but Caleb had slept through everything.  
  
The little boy was snoring softly, mouth open. Some drool was leaking out of the corner of his lips. His skin had a nice Mediterranean tan and he had large, bushy eyebrows. His hair was cut short, the colour somewhere between gold and brown. Undoubtedly, the hair would darken further as the boy aged.  
  
Max wondered who the boy’s parents were. He knew all the other humans by sight, though he wasn’t great with names, and he tried to link the boy’s features to the people he knew.  
  
In the meanwhile, every member of 8B’s squad had exited their flight units. 8B and 64B had headed over to the two androids wearing brown and were talking to the one on the left.  
  
Max opened the door of the airship and stepped out, the pod he was tied to following sedately behind. Raising his arms to stretch, Max moved towards 7E, who was standing guard.  
  
“I didn’t know we’d be meeting anyone here,” he said. “Who are they?”  
  
“Members of the local Resistance,” explained 7E. “The plan was to land a kilometre away from their camp to avoid giving their location to the enemy and then we would have made our way there on foot and meet them at the camp.” She inclined her head, looking speculatively at the two unknown androids. “It seems the Resistance was too impatient to meet real humans.”  
  
Max didn’t know what to say to that. “Oh.”  
  
Henri slowly made his way out of the airship as the driver, 32F, headed to the back to retrieve the sleeping Caleb.  
  
While the Resistance member on the left talked to 8B, the one on the right, a woman whose tattered hood and voluminous scarf hid much of her features. She had a plain, symmetrical face, with pale eyes and a black fringe swept to the side. The woman had noticed Max and Henri and was currently pinning them with an intense look. She didn’t walk over, but she clearly wanted to.  
  
Doctor Francis brushed non-existent dust from his trousers and straightened up, his back making a few cracking noises as he stretched.  
  
“Ah, it feels nice,” said the old man with a soft exhale. He caught sight of the two Resistance androids 8B was talking to. “Huh. More androids?”  
  
“Non-YoRHa,” Max said knowledgeably, as if he hadn’t been told this seconds before. “They’re from the Resistance. Couldn’t wait for us to arrive, so they came here to check us out.”  
  
“Hm-hmm,” said Henri, looking at the Resistance android on the right. Said android stared back. “Well, let’s go say hello.”  
  
And without hesitation, he began to walk over to the androids.  
  
Max dithered, not particularly interested in meeting any more androids that might fangirl over ‘humans’, yet aware that he couldn’t avoid meeting the two Resistance androids. Reluctant, he followed Henri.  
  
“Greetings, ladies!” said Doctor Francis once he was close enough. “I’ve been told you’re from the Resistance?”  
  
The one on the left who had been talking to 8B nodded. “Yes. I’m Anemone, the leader.” Unlike her companion, Anemone’s clothes were in good condition. Now that Max was closer, he could see that her cloak wasn’t brown and was instead more of an olive colour, with some gold-colouring around the edges.  
  
The other Resistance android tilted her chin up. “And I’m Jackass.”  
  
Max twitched. His English wasn’t great, as he had never been that good of a student and at school he had constantly been confused by English grammar and pronunciation. Compared to English, German might have more grammar rules, but it didn’t have as many exceptions and was much more predictable. Yet, despite how poor his grasp of English was, he was pretty sure that second android’s name was an English insult.  
  
That language androids spoke wasn’t English, as all languages from the twenty-first century were long dead and the language spoken today, which Max had been forced to learn, was a vaguely Latin-based language that sounded Central European. And yet, Max was rather sure that androids had enough knowledge of human culture to know what the word ‘Jackass’ meant.  
  
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” said Henri. He pointed at Max. “This is Maxime, and I’m Henri.”  
  
Anemone gave a small, perfunctory smile. “The pleasure is all mine. We’re here to escort you to camp. These past days have been spent culling any nearby hostile machines, but it’s still dangerous. Please stay close and follow me.”  
  
Henri nodded. “Of course.”

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

To escort the humans to the Resistance camp, 8B sent out 64B to scout ahead.

  
While 64B left, the remaining androids all formed a diamond shape around the group of humans, with the two Resistance androids at the front and 8B bringing up the rear.  
  
Caleb was being held by the 32F, who was standing between Max and Doctor Francis.  
  
"We shall wait two minutes for 64B to analyse the terrain," explained 8B. "Nearby machine lifeforms have already been killed in preparation for our arrival, so no major enemies should be sighted. Once 64B gives the all-clear, we will depart."  
  
Max frowned, examining the rooftop they were on doubtfully.  
  
The roof was entirely flat, belonging to a building of at least twenty levels. There were no doors leading inside the building.  
  
"How are we leaving?" he asked, his frown deepening.  
  
8B gestured towards the edge of the roof. "That way. We need to head north-west."  
  
"No. What I mean is, how are we leaving this roof? There isn't a door that'll let us inside the building."  
  
Once again, 8B pointed at the edge of the roof. "We'll jump off."  
  
  
…  
  
  
…  
  
  
…  
  
  
This time, the one to speak was Henri. "Jumping off such a high building? 8B, I know we are tied to these pods, but are you sure this is safe?"  
  
"The pods are strong enough to be used by androids to glide down through the air," said Max thoughtfully, "and androids weigh, what, a hundred and fifty kilograms? I don't even weigh eighty kilos, so I should be fine."  
  
Despite his words, he was biting his lip as he looked at the faraway ground, several dozen meters beneath him.  
  
8B nodded. "Maxime is right. Humans are so light that a pod could fly you around instead of merely slowing your descent. The risk is minimal."  
  
Henri took a step closer to the edge, looked down, and blanched. He hurriedly stepped back.  
  
"Is there any other way to head down?" he asked plaintively.  
  
This time, the one to answer was Jackass: "You can do what we did to come up here. There's a large hole in the wall of the level just beneath us. If you crawl down, you can enter the place through there and then take the stairs."  
  
At that moment, all the pods present broadcasted an audio message:  
  
"8B," said a female voice, one Max immediately recognized as 64B, "I took care of any threats. The path is clear."  
  
"Perfect," said 8B. "We might be a little late. We're facing some issues."  
  
"Damn! Is it the machines?"  
  
"No. Some of the humans are having trouble making their way to the ground," explained 8B.  
  
"Do you need help?"  
  
"No. Just head back to our position and wait at the base of the building. We'll join you."  
  
The light shining out of each pod turned off as the conversation ended.  
  
Without a word, 8B walked away from the group of androids and humans, heading to the part of the roof furthers away from them. Then, with a wave of her arm, one of her swords left its spot at her back and sliced at the ground.  
  
It took quite a few tries, each of considerable strength, before a hole was cut into the ground, leading inside the building.  
  
Unruffled, 8B put her weapon back in place.  
  
"There. Is this preferable?"  
  
Doctor Francis nodded. "Yes. Thank you, 8B. I'm utterly useless with heights, so jumping off a building is a bit much for me, even with a pod to keep me safe."  
  
"I understand," said 8B. "Let's head down."  
  
Things became considerable simpler. The androids helped Henri down, while Max managed to jump into the hole and glide down to the floor beneath with his pod's help.  
  
The building itself was completely devoid of furniture. The walls had no paint. Everything was grey cement, and the windows had no glass to prevent the wind from whistling through the corridors.  
  
In some places, the floor had given out, crumbling into pieces. Once the group reached the lower levels, they even saw that a tree growing outside had several of its branches poking through the windows, obstructing the way.  
  
One of the first questions Max had asked, two years ago when he'd been told it was no longer the twenty-first century and he'd moved forward in time, arriving over ten thousand years later, was:  
  
_"How can there still be buildings if humans have been gone for several thousand years? Shouldn't they are broken down and crumbled to nothingness?"_  
  
After all, most of the buildings were in too good shape to be such old ruins.  
  
He had been informed that there were several groups of androids that worked to restore and rebuild human settlements and monuments, wanting to keep things as they were for the day that humans would want to return to Earth.  
  
That was why the city Max was currently in seemed in such good shape. Sure, most of the buildings were broken and the roads cracked, with plants everywhere, but it was still better than nothing. No building would have withstood ten thousand years without renovations and rebuilding. Without the androids, this city would be lucky to even be recognizable as a place humans had once lived in.  
  
Still, with the androids rebuilding based on scraps of information humans had left behind, quite a few funny mistakes had been made. For example, the Eiffel Tower had been rebuilt in Las Vegas, as the city had had a replica there when humans were still around, and androids had mistaken it for the place where the real Eiffel Tower had been built. Hadrian's wall had been entirely rebuilt in the British Isles, instead of the ruin it had been back in the twenty-first century.  
  
The city Max was in right now was Tokyo, and it too had suffered from an error during rebuilding. A German castle from the Middle Ages had been built nearby, an amusing mistake made by the rebuilders.  
  
Apparently the castle was full of machine lifeforms, but Max was hoping to find a way to visit it. He was curious.  
  
"We should not encounter any trouble on our way to camp," said 8B once they'd reached the ground floor. "If anything happens, it is important to not lead the enemy to the Resistance camp. I have sent coordinates to you for where we need to head if we are under attack of separated."  
  
Indeed, as she said those words, Max's pod made a little sound and a light shone out of it. The pod projected a map into the air in front of Max, showing where he currently was, where the Resistance camp was, and where the emergency meeting point was.  
  
This information was relayed directly into the minds of the androids, so only Max and Henri needed their pods to display the map.  
  
"Any questions?" 8B didn't wait for an answer before continuing: "Then let's go."

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

The Resistance camp was... underwhelming. After seeing YoRHa's sophisticated satellite base, with its gleaming tech and advanced weaponry, the Resistance camp seemed run-down by comparison.  
  
A lot of the material was worn or rusty. The entire camp was set in a small empty space enclosed by apartment buildings on all sides, protecting it from the sight of the machine lifeforms. There were several stalls being manned by Resistance members, probably for giving out supplies, intel and reparations. Each stall was protected by white canvas which had been nailed to the walls of the surrounding apartment buildings, protecting the sensitive materials from rain. The middle of the camp was the only uncovered part, and the cement had cracked little with age, letting a spot of grass and flowers appear. A few benches were set around the bit of greenery, as if it were a campfire.  
  
To access the camp, you had to go through one of the buildings surrounding it, a specific one furthest south.  
  
The entrance was hidden, but not that well. Luckily, machine lifeforms were not that smart, or they would have found the Resistance camp ages ago.  
  
Unlike with YoRHa, none of the Resistance members were crowding close to see humans. In fact, they didn't seem to care much at all.  
  
Some of them had raised their heads to see who had arrived, but as soon as they saw the group was being led by Anemone and Jackass, they relaxed and went back to their work.  
  
Huh.  
  
Max had often inwardly complained about the attention he received from androids, so he _should_ be happy, but this complete lack of interest felt strange.  
  
As the group entered the camp, he walked a little faster to approach Anemone.  
  
"Did you tell your people that humans would be showing up?" he asked, perplexed.  
  
Anemone nodded. "Of course. Why?"  
  
Max hesitated. "Well, I..." How to say this nicely? "I thought we'd be swarmed by androids who want to touch a real human, like at the Bunker."  
  
Anemone's lips twitched. "YoRHa is a young organisation. This is the Resistance. We have been fighting for much longer and all of our members are older than YoRHa. They know better than the pester you when you've barely arrived. They'll wait for you to come to them, first."  
  
Wait... Had she just implied that YoRHa androids were a bunch of children with no self-control? What kind of back-handed insult was that?  
  
"A room has been set aside for you," announced Anemone. "It has two beds, so you'll be sharing with Henri Francis. I was informed that a foldable cot would be brought along for the... infant," — She pronounced it strangely, as if she had never had to say 'infant' before. — "so we only prepared sheets and a pillow for him."  
  
"You'll have to ask 32F for details," said Max. "I don't know exactly what was brought for the baby. Caleb is only staying for a few days before being sent back home, so he probably doesn't have much."  
  
"Very well. I'll let Jackass show you to your room, and once you've settled in you can come out and meet our members properly."  
  
Max smiled. "Thanks. I'll do that."  
  
He tugged lightly on the cord connected him to his pod and went off to ask Jackass for directions.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> French Translation:
> 
> Pas d'humains, pas de deforestation.  
> No humans, no deforestation.
> 
> I decided that the two chapters I had in reserve would be combined into a bigger chapter, so here it is! From now on, updates will be irregular, with me posting whenever I have something to post. And Updates will only ever be on a Saturday.


	6. Chapter 6

There weren’t a lot of indoor areas at the Resistance camp. Most of the buildings serving to delimit the camp were in too bad a state to live in. The few rooms that could be used were all on the ground floor. Most were used to store crates full of material that wasn’t water resistant.

The room Jackass brought Max to was small, but after living so long up in space he would’ve been happy even if the room were the size of a closet. Max could pick which bed he wanted, since Henri hadn’t followed Jackass and was currently too busy talking the leader of the Resistance.

The bed furthest from the door was the one Max chose. He already had ideas about asking for some sort of screen to separate his half of the room from the doctor’s in an attempt to have more privacy.

“Pod, can you put down my luggage on the bed?”

The machine—no, that word was not adapted. The robot? The drone? Anyway, the pod flew over and let the hovering luggage down as ordered.

“Thanks.”

“You are welcome.”

Max sat down on the end of his bed. He didn’t feel like unpacking, especially when there didn’t appear to be any furniture for him to put his things in. He would have to keep all his clothes in his bag for the duration of his stay.

He wanted to explore the camp a little, but the idea of all those androids staring at him… well, he could always explore later. Let the Resistance members get their fill of humanity through Henri and Caleb.

“Pod? D’you have a map of the area?”

Back at the space station, Max’s pod had access to a really high-quality map. But considering the Earth was much larger and the androids had less satellites than humanity had back in the 21st century, Max was pretty sure he couldn’t expect the pod to have a built-in GPS.

The pod didn’t answer verbally. Instead, a screen made of light appeared. It was in various shades of grey, with rectangular shapes that had to be buildings. There were little white dots near Max’s position, representing non-hostiles. Max, Henri and Caleb didn’t have a white dot. Instead, they had a large yellow star, impossible to miss.

“Hmmm...” Max observed the map. There were a lot of buildings, and with the overgrown-greenery everywhere, he could already imagine himself doing parkour throughout the city, climbing the trees like a monkey. It was completely unrealistic, of course, due to the aggressive machines, but it was still a nice dream. “The whole area has no more machines, right?”

A large red disk appeared on the map, with the Resistance camp in the middle.

“Report: The marked area was emptied of machines sixteen hours ago. The edges of the perimeter are slowly being re-acquired by machine lifeforms. Estimate: The inner area’s safety will no longer be guaranteed in in thirty-two hours.”

That was fast. But considering how outnumbered the androids were, they could only afford the manpower to keep their various camps and outposts safe, occasionally shutting down machine factories or asking YoRHa to do so.

Max took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, his shoulders slumping. He could hear movement and chatter coming from outside, muffled by the room’s walls. Henri’s booming, good-natured voice was easy to recognize. The pod flying at Max’s side made a barely-audible constant buzzing sound as it hovered, ready to serve.

After procrastinating for longer than he should have, Max gathered the will to head back outside.

There weren’t that many Resistance members at the camp. More than ten, but less than twenty. The other members were probably out on missions, not able or not interested enough to come to the camp to gawk at humans.

The relaxed attitude of these Resistance androids when faced with humans was really a breath of fresh air after almost being mobbed by YoRHa members back at the base.

A little intimidated, Max hurried over to Henri, who was talking to an android sitting cross-legged under one of the white cloth-covers.

“That’s a very good question, isn’t it?” the doctor was saying. “If an android replaces every part of themselves, are they still themselves, or just a copy? When it comes to existentialism, the—”

“Hey,” said Max quietly, joining them.

Henri turned around, beaming. “Maxime, _mon garçon!_ I’ve been talking to this android who has some interesting philosophical conundrums.”

“I heard,” said Max. He looked down at the android on the ground. “Hi, I’m Max.”

The android had tanned skin that made him look Mediterranean. He wore a faded yellow shirt and a hat. His eyes were covered by goggles, lit up with blue patterns.

“I’m the Supply Trader,” said the android.

Max waited, but no name came.

“Ah, right!” said Henri. “You might be a little confused, Max, but I was just informed that naming patterns in the Resistance are a little different from what you’re used to with YoRHa. Some use nouns and adjectives as their names, like Anemone and… Jackass.” He stumbled a bit over that last name. “And others might use human names. But you’ll also see a lot of androids naming themselves according to their job. So you’ll have Supply Trader here,” —He gestured at the android in question— “and others like  him with the same kind of name.”

‘That’s weird,’ Max didn’t say.

“Nice to meet you,” he said instead.

Supply Trader gave a slow, thoughtful nod. “If you ever need anything, you can come to me. I’m one of those in charge of your food supplies, so we’ll be in contact often.”

“They’ve got a lot of meat,” said Henri, “but less fruits and vegetables, so we’ll have to ration those.”

“At least we won’t have to deal with winter, or else we’d starve,” said Max.

Supply Trader looked alarmed. “We would never let any human starve!”

“Of course not,” responded Max. “It was just a joke.”

Supply Trader didn’t seem very mollified.

Before Max could say he was sorry, two other androids showed up. They were both female, with matching outfits and red hair. They were mostly differentiated by their hair cuts. One had straight hair, while the other one had messier, wavy locks.

“Hi,” said the one with straight hair. “It’s an honour to—”

“We were talking,” interrupted Supply Trader with a pointed look.

That was rather harsh. Was Supply Trader that enamoured with humanity that he didn't want anyone else to join the conversation, keeping Henri and Max's attention all to himself?

“It’s quite all right!” said Doctor Francis. “I’m Henri Francis, and my companion here is Maxime.”

“You can just call me Max,” added Max.

“I’m Popola,” said the one with straight hair, “and this is Devola.”

They were twins. Well, not really, as androids didn’t have siblings, but they’d clearly been modelled to look identical, except for the hair. Maybe they were both made from the same base model? After all, YoRHa tended to re-use pre-set personalities and bodies. All Scanner models had the same appearance, except for the hair which could come in various colours and lengths. And the number a YoRHa android had in their name corresponded to which base-personality they had been given when created. That was why an android named 7H and one named 7B would probably behave similarly, though with a few changes due to their differing life experiences.

“A pleasure!” exclaimed Henri, holding out his hand.

Surprisingly, Popola did not need to be told what a handshake was. She grasped his hand and returned the greeting. The doctor then shook hands with Devola, his grip firm and his movement brisk.

“You’re dressed a little bit differently compared to other androids around here, girls,” said Doctor Francis. “Is it a fashion statement?”

“Fashion?” Popola looked down at her clothes. “No. We aren’t officially affiliated with the Resistance. We’re staying here for a few months and performing tasks in exchange for lodgings. That’s why we don’t quite… fit in.”

Max could see that Supply Trader was frowning at the two androids, and with the way he’d spoken to them just before… Hm. Maybe Resistance members weren’t very welcoming of outsiders?

“What sort of tasks do you do around here?” asked Doctor Francis.

Max was too distracted to listen to the answer, catching sight of 8B who was coming over. He stepped away from Henri and the three androids to walk over to 8B and meet her half-way.

“Hey, is everything going well?” he asked.

“Perfectly,” she said. “We’ve got a schedule of activities for Henri and you to keep you intellectually and physically stimulated while you’re on Earth. Do you want to do one of those activities today, or would you prefer to rest?”

‘Intellectually and physically stimulated’? The corner of Max’s lips twitched.

“What kind of activities d’you have?”

Her pod made a screen appear, showing a list. Unfortunately, while Max’s grasp of the local language was good after two years of hard work, his reading skills were sub-par. He had no choice but to wait for her to read it out loud.

“There are nearby water sources where you can try fishing,” she began. “We also have an area of the camp where you can listen to music. And further into the camp are other rooms we use mostly for storage. We’ve been arranging them so they could be used as a ‘lavatory’.” She clearly had no idea what a lavatory was. “If you want, you can head over to instruct the workers on your preferences.”

Before she could continue listing activities, Max asked: “Fishing?”

He’d done some fishing before, when on vacation at the Lake of Thun. It had been an enjoyable experience, even though he rarely caught anything while his father would always bring back enough to force the family to eat fish for a week. His sister was—had been—a good fisherman. The only part she couldn’t do was hitting the fish’s head at the end to give it a clean death, so he’d always done that for her. She would usually thank him by giving him one of the fish she had caught, since he rarely had many. He remembered the time a few deer had come close to the spot where his family would fish, and he’d excitedly taken a few pictures. Since his phone had come with him on this trip to the future, a YoRHa Operator had managed to save his pictures and music onto a terminal so he could keep them. Other than those pictures and the history of text message conversations, he didn’t have anything else of his family. They were back in the twenty-first century, and would probably be nothing but bones and dust by now…

“… Fishing could be nice,” said Max.

8B nodded. “I’ll organize that, then. Caleb is currently being fed, so we can leave him with his carer while we go fishing.”

“Right.” Max paused, realising something. “Do we even have fishing gear? I can’t remember seeing any...”

“It won’t be a problem; pods have a fishing function.”

Using pods to fish? How would that work? Did you order the pod to fly over a lake and then grab a fish with its metal claws? Or did it use the telekinesis used to make its android companion’s weapons float?

“That’ll be interesting,” said Max, still trying to imagine how you could fish with a pod. “Should I ask Doctor Francis if he wants to join?” Adults tended to like fishing more than teenagers, so Henri would probably be happy to join.

“That’s unnecessary. While we are still tightening up security measures, we want to keep humans separate to lower risks in case of an attack. You can do activities together starting tomorrow.”

The idea of being only accompanied by androids as he went fishing cut down on his enthusiasm. Androids were pretty to look at, but they weren’t exactly great for conversation. The fact that they were speaking to a human made it pretty much impossible for them to be as casual as Max wanted. It made most discussions awkward. 8B, for example, appeared okay at first glance, until Max had heard her speaking to fellow androids in private and realized she used rather coarse and direct language, but faced with humans, she would change completely and she’d be on her best behaviour, treating them like VIPs.

It had been pretty nice at first, but it got old fast to have androids tip-toeing around you and anxious to please you. That was also why Max liked the Commander so much. Her behaviour towards humans didn’t mirror that of other androids.

“Okay!” Max said, clapping his hands. “Then I’ll see if any Resistance members want to come fishing with us. That way it can be a bonding activity.”

“I’ll inform 22B and 64B,” said 8B. “The rest of the squad will remain here to guard Henri and Caleb.”

“Gimme a few minutes and I’ll be ready to go.” He nodded to her and headed off, wondering if Jackass, Popola and Devola would be interested in fishing...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a difficult chapter. I struggled with it for quite a while, because right now we're in the Daily Life arc, with a lot of slice-of-life, before the plot picks up and things get really interesting. I had trouble writing this chapter because I'm terrible at slice-of-life and everything I come up with feels boring. And yet, I can't skip it because I need to establish a few things first. So basically I spent the last few months wracking my brains over ways to write entertaining slice-of-life, but I think it's something I still need to work on to improve in, because I'm not really satisfied with this chapter.


	7. DEVOLA & POPOLA / JACKASS & MAX / 8B & 64B / 9S & HENRI / 2B & JACKASS & MAX

“A healthy meal consists of vegetables, grains and protein,” said Popola.

Devola frowned. “Protein is easy to gather. There’s a lot of wildlife. But vegetables? Grains? Where will we find that?”

The two androids were seated at the edge of one of the shorter buildings in the city, overlooking a plain that had been emptied of machines just hours ago to keep the area secure for the local humans.

“And humans aren’t like the animals we’ve fed in the past,” said Popola, looking down at a green area beneath them where a moose was grazing. “We can’t feed them leaves or grass.”

The conversation tapered off as both girls thought.

“I don’t know about vegetables...” began Devola, “but the forest area has nuts and fruits. Those aren’t vegetables, exactly, but it should be okay. Ish.”

“There are some wild apples there, cherries, carrots and hazelnuts. Let’s gather those first and acquire the meat after, so it doesn’t spoil.”

 

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

 

“I forget how tall trees are outside of the city.”

The two girls were standing near the bank of a small river, looking at a large tree with apples growing from its limbs, well out of reach.

The trees in the forest kingdom had thick trunks and, unlike those in the city, grew up in a straight line, making them much harder to climb.

Devola huffed. “Great. And the branches won’t take our weight.”

At around 150 kilograms each, any attempt at climbing a tree would result in broken branches. At least the trunks were thick enough to carry an android with minimal trouble.

“There’s no way for us to get those apples...” said Popola, looking up at the top of the tree.

“Then let’s do this the easy way!” declared Devola. She brought out an old but trusty sword and hit the tree-trunk. It left a deep gouge.

“Devola!” cried her sister. “You can’t just damage the local ecosystem like that! This tree is at least a century old!”

“Don’t worry, it’s serving a greater purpose,” said Devola. She hit the trunk a few more times until the tree was making groaning sounds.

Eyes wide, Popola dragged her sibling out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed by an eight-metre tall tree.

And of course, the noise brought all the local machines running, armed to the teeth.

 

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

 

Ten minutes later, two significantly battered Devola and Popola ran away with a bag full of bruised apples and small hazelnuts.

“Next time, we’ll bring climbing gear,” said Popola, looking behind them to check how far the machines were.

“Don’t bother,” Devola responded, hefting the bag a little higher up over her shoulder. “Next time, we’ll just ask 2B and 9S to gather it for us. They’re so obsessed with fetching trivial stuff for Resistance members that this should be easy for them.”

“Good idea,” said Popola, nearly tripped over a stone as they left the forest area and returned to an ancient shopping mall with holes in its walls and plants growing everywhere. “From now on, let’s delegate. YoRHa agents are more suited to such risky quests.”

“We need to gather the protein now. Where do you wanna go?”

They exited the shopping mall and ran past a few more machines, heading towards the large chasm in front of the mall, separating it from the rest of the city.

“We could fish?” proposed Popola.

Devola shook her head. “We don’t have a fishing pole anymore. The last one broke a few months ago, remember?”

“Great. Then how will we gather meat?”

“… We could hunt a mammal instead?”

 

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

 

“Bad idea! Bad idea!” exclaimed Devola, running from a giant boar.

Popola was near the boar’s side, harassing it with a sword. The animal’s layer of fur and hide was too thick for the sword to penetrate.

“I can barely scratch it!” said Popola as the boar shook its head,  trying to push her back. “We need to aim for its eyes!”

Devola laughed. “Easy for you to say!” Too slow to outrun the boar, she had to jump to the side to avoid being flattened. The boar turned and charged.

Popola used the distraction to jump onto the boar’s back, one hand grabbing the fur of its neck and the other one holding the sword. She tried to pierce its eyes, but the boar was angry at being forced to carry a passenger. It reared back and started jumping and kicking wildly, doing everything it could to throw her off. Popola had to let go of the sword just to keep her grip on on the animal, both hands holding on tightly.

“Keep it still!” Devola ordered, picking up her sister’s weapon. She was now holding a sword in each hand.

Leaning forward, Popola grabbed the boar’s snout, forcing it to look up and leaving its mouth gaping open.

The first sword broke through the roof of the boar’s mouth, coming out the back of its head. It wasn’t enough to kill it, as the animal just grew more and more violent, trashing about. Popola lost her grip on the boar and had to hold onto its fur to remain on its back.

“Why is it still alive?” asked Devola, holding her remaining sword.

“Hit it again!” was all Popola could say.

Devola avoided being gored by a passing blow, and then aimed for the boar’s left eye. Her aim was a bit off, but it pierced through nonetheless. She jerked the sword a bit, and the animal finally stilled. Its legs gave up and it fell to the ground. Popola was sent tumbling over its head. She landed in a roll and got back to her feet immediately.

“Finally,” said Devola. She nudged the boar with her foot to ensure it was truly dead, and only relaxed when it didn’t react.

Popola came over and pulled out her sword of the animal’s mouth. With a sharp flick of her hand, most of the blood was send flying off, leaving only a few stains.

They looked at the enormous boar, twice their size.

 

“What are we supposed to do now?” asked Devola.

Popola sheathed her sword and walked closer to the dead animal. “I think we’re supposed to… prepare it?”

“How do we do that?”

Popola shrugged helplessly.

 

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

 

“This is for you.”

Henri Francis looked down at the meal being presented to him by one of those red-headed sisters, the one with straight hair.

“Popola, was it?” he asked.

She nodded. Her sister, Devola, was a step behind her, holding two other plates.

He looked down. It was a meal consisting of cooked apple slices, roasted nuts and a red meat he could not identify on sight, which was slightly undercooked. The apples were an interesting choice, as he’d only ever eaten them cooked if they were in a pie or an apple crumble. Still, it was a very thoughtful gesture.

“Thank you girls. I appreciate it.” He would have to go looking for the knife and fork set he’d brought down to Earth with him. Androids didn’t really eat, and so most didn’t realize humans ate such meals with cutlery.

He eyed the remaining two plates in Devola’s hands. “Are those for… Max?”

“And Caleb,” said Devola.

Henri nodded slowly, trying to find the best way to say it. “For Caleb’s plate, try cutting the meat in small, manageable parts.” He indicated a size with his fingers. “At that age, they’re still learning how to eat properly, and might swallow something too big and choke. You’ll have to ask Caleb’s minder about the hazelnuts. I don’t think he’ll have problems chewing on them, but it’s best to check.”

“Oh,” said Popola. Her shoulders hunched, and she averted her eyes.

Feeling a bit guilty, Henri proposed: “I can do it myself. I can go find my knife and show you what’s the best size for the meat. You don’t need to feel bad about such things. You’re still learning, aren’t you?”

Popola didn’t seem very reassured.

“And besides,” continued Henri, trying to find a way to make her smile return, “Max loves meat. He’ll be delighted when you show him this.”

“Really?” The light was returning to Popola’s eyes.

Henri nodded.

“That’s great,” added Devola. “We’ve got tons of meat and we weren’t sure what to do with the rest of it. We can just give it all to Maxime.”

Two minutes later, Max received his own meal, and was told there were still 500 kilograms of meat available if he wanted seconds.

He very sensibly responded with: “How about we freeze the rest, maybe send three fourths of the meat to the humans up in space?”

The idea that their hard work could feed the humans on the moon delighted Devola and Popola beyond measure.

 

 

 

 

 

-o-o-o-

 

 

 

 

 

“So how do humans reproduce?”

Max looked up from the potatoes he was peeling. Jackass looked back expectantly.

Used to such weird questions, Max answered without a blush: “You need a male human and a female human, both of them fertile. The male puts his reproductive organs inside the female’s, expels some biological material that fertilizes her eggs and _voilà_!”

“Just like fish!” exclaimed Jackass.

“Uh, no. Humans are mammals, like the moose and huge pigs that hang around the area. That means we don’t lay eggs, we keep the baby inside the mother’s body until it’s grown enough to breathe and eat on its own.”

There was probably a lot wrong with what he had said. He wasn’t a biology expert, so he didn’t know the proper wording, but that was the basics of it. Female gametocyte + male gametocyte = zygote.

“How many humans have you made?” asked Jackass, eyes wide and curious under her tattered hood.

“Personally? None,” said Max, while inwardly thinking, ‘What the fuck.’ “I did donate biological material to YoRHa for their baby program.”

“Baby program?”

Max looked to the side, trying to find an excuse to escape this uncomfortable conversation.

“How about you ask Henri? He knows more about it than I do.”

‘Better him than me.’

 

 

 

 

 

-o-o-o-

 

 

 

 

 

“Captain?” called 64B.

8B had barely arrived back to the Resistance Camp. 64B had been waiting at the entrance, fidgeting.

“What the _fuck_ are you doing here?” asked 8B. “Aren’t you meant to be on a mission, clearing the area of machine lifeforms? Why’ve you been waiting around uselessly?”

“Something happened to one of the humans,” said 64B. “To Henri.”

8B put a hand on one of her larger swords, alert. “What’s wrong?”

64B wrung her hands, uncharacteristically worried. It made her look like 22B. “I was talking to him, and he mentioned he couldn’t remember what he ate two days ago, when he arrived to Earth! I think his memory has been corrupted, but I don’t know how to reboot a human! How do we fix this?”

“ _Shit_. This is just the kind of fucking—”

“Oh, hey 8B!”

8B shut her mouth and straightened, stopping herself just as she was about to salute. Her hand stopped hovering by her broadsword.

Max, one of her human charges, had just walked over.

“Max. It is good to see you,” said 8B, tone markedly more polite.

“You guys look stressed,” said Max, looking from 8B to 64B and back again. “Is something wrong?”

64B hesitated, but when 8B didn’t protest, she carefully explained Henri’s memory problem.

Max looked worried at the start of the explanation, but by the end of it, the worry was gone.

“Oh, that’s completely normal,” he told them. “Androids have perfect memory, but human memory isn’t as good. So our brain, the organ responsible for our mental processes, will choose to delete some less important information like what food you’ve eaten a few days ago, how many buildings you walked by while heading to the Resistance camp, and so on. It only keeps important things and gets rid of the rest to spare space. Forgetting minor details is normal. But if someone begins forgetting important things like the name name of someone they’ve known for years or their age, then it might be a cause for concern and could be a sign that something is wrong.”

“That is a relief to hear, Max,” said 8B. 64B gave a nod of her own.

“I actually came ‘round because I was hoping we could do another expedition outside of the camp. Maybe you could take us exploring a bit?”

Common sense dictated Max remain at the Resistance camp for the duration of his stay on Earth, but 8B did not like the thought of denying him such a small request.

“Very well. I shall organize something for tomorrow.”

Max beamed at her. “Thanks, you’re the best.”

8B brushed some hair behind her ear, looking away. “It’s no trouble.”

“By the way, 8B,”—Max’s eyes were on the weapons floating at 8B’s back.—“how heavy is that sword of yours? It looks impressive. Very Final Fantasy-ish.”

8B glanced back at one of the numerous weapons at her back, the large sword as long as she was tall. “Around thirty-six kilograms.”

“Wow,” said Max, surprised. “Guess I’ll forget about trying to lift it. I’ll break my back carrying _that_.”

8B leaned back, horrified at the idea of being responsible for him injuring himself.

“Anyway, I need to head back to camp,” said Max. When the two androids didn’t move, he added: “I’ll see you two in a moment.”

He turned and walked deeper into the camp, leaving 8B and 64B at the entrance by themselves.

“… He didn’t hear me curse, did he?” asked 8B.

“I don’t think so, Captain.”

 

 

 

 

 

-o-o-o-

 

 

 

 

 

“You said your name was 9S, right?” asked Henri.

The android he was speaking to was a white-haired Scanner Type. He had shown up with his partner, a Battler Type called 2B with the same body as 8B and only slightly shorter hair, making them look similar enough to be confusing.

Henri would have to remember that 2B was the one with hair cut to follow her jawline, while 8B wore heavier armour and had white hair that just barely reached her shoulders.

They’d apparently been on a long mission out in the desert and had only come back now.

“Yes, sir,” said 9S, saluting. “Glory to Mankind.” He looked so eager as he said it that Henri couldn’t bring himself to say anything against those words. “May I just say, sir, that it’s an honour to meet a human.”

Henri was vividly reminded of one of his grand-children, a boy with dreams of being a scientist who always looked at Henri with worshipful eyes. That powerful nostalgia made Henri take an instant liking to 9S.

“The honour is all mine,” he said, grabbing 9S’s hand and shaking it. The android was a bit confused by the gesture, but allowed it. “I was just about to go see Caleb, the youngest of us humans here on Earth. Would you like to come with me?”

9S nodded briskly, as if afraid Henri would change his mind. “That would be great, no, fantastic!”

Henri smiled, feeling a burst of fondness. He made a gesture indicating for 9S to follow him and walked over to the room he shared with Max, where little Caleb was playing with a few wooden blocks.

“Hello, little Caleb,” said Henri gently, sitting on his bed and looking down at the young child.

9S remained by the door. His eyes were hidden behind that black band YoRHa androids used as a visor, but Henri was sure they were wide and surprised as 9S observed the tiny human in front of him. Every android had reacted that way upon seeing the toddler.

Caleb looked up when he heard his name. “He’ri! He’ri!” he exclaimed, waving a block around excitedly.

“I can see you’re having a lot of fun playing with those,” said Henri. “I’ve got someone here who wants to meet you.” He glanced up at 9S, making a little ‘come here’ move with his head.

9S advanced slowly and knelt down to be at eye-level with Caleb.

“I’m 9S,” he said gently.

Caleb looked at 9S. He frowned and said: “No!”

“No?” repeated 9S, bewildered.

“No!” shouted Caleb louder, throwing a block at 9S.

9S didn’t bother dodging the weak throw. “I guess you can call me Nines if you prefer.” He looked at Henri, requesting guidance.

“No!” said Caleb again.

Henri reached out and patted 9S on the shoulder. “Don’t take it personally. Caleb has recently learned how to say ‘no’ and delights in saying it to everyone. Most of the time, he’ll say ‘no’ just because he can, not necessarily because he disagrees with what you say. At that age, children are constantly increasing their vocabulary and pushing limits. This is his ‘no’ phase.” 

“Oh.” 9S looked much happier now.

“I’m pretty sure the next phase will be him asking ‘why’ constantly, until you run out of answers to give,” said Henri.

“No!” exclaimed Caleb again.

This time, 9S didn’t take it personally. In fact, he gave a wry smile and sat down on the ground, continuing to look at Caleb. The boy was gathering as many blocks as possible to put them between his legs in a messy pile.

“Do you want me to show you one of his favourite games?” asked Henri.

“Me? Uh, sure,” said 9S.

Henri leaned down and called: “Caleb?”

The boy looked up, familiar with the tone that always preceded playtime.

Henri covered his face with both of his hands. “Where’s Henri? Where did Henri go?”

Caleb started giggling.

“Where’s Henri?”

Then, Henri pulled his hands away, revealing his face. “Boo!”

Caleb burst out laughing.

9S looked hopelessly confused.

“Again! Again!” demanded Caleb, forgetting completely about his blocks in favour of this new game.

Henri did it a few more times. Caleb never seemed to tire of the game, treating each time as if it were new, and laughing loudly. After a while, Henri had to ignore the toddler’s demands for the game to continue so he could turn back to 9S, who had been observing silently.

“You look like you have questions?” said Henri.

Caleb pulled at Henri’s sleeve, trying to ask for the game to continue, but Henri just put a wooden block in the boy’s hands. Sufficiently distracted, Caleb stopped paying attention to Henri and returned to paying with his blocks.

“You… You were clearly still there,” said 9S slowly. “You weren’t even hiding, not really. You just hid your face behind your hands, but the rest of your body was still visible.”

Henri nodded. “This game is a popular one among young children. At that age, they’re growing up, learning new words and concepts. Their brains aren’t fully developed yet, and that includes things such as sarcasm, which young children can’t quite understand and will usually take literally. You can also put a baby in front of a mirror and it’ll think its reflection is another baby. These are concepts it’ll learn as it grows and matures.”

9S looked down at Caleb, who had already forgotten he wasn’t alone and was diligently stacking blocks.

“The game I was playing with Caleb has to do with object permanence,” Henri explained. “With young children, if you show them a flower, for example, and then put a white sheet over it, they’ll think the flower disappeared. That’s because they don’t have object permanence yet. Once they have it, they’ll be able to realize that just because they can’t see something, doesn’t mean it has ceased to exist.”

“When you hid your face...” said 9S, realization dawning, “Caleb genuinely thought you were gone.”

“Exactly. And when I showed my face again, it was like I appeared out of nowhere. A lot of babies and young toddlers love this game. As they grow up, they’ll gain object permanence and the game won’t work as well.” Henri paused, analysing the expression on 9S’s face. “If you want, you can try playing the game too.”

9S glanced at Henri questioningly.

“You’d just need to take off that black band covering your eyes. This game works best if you reveal your whole face when you say ‘boo’.”

That last word caught little Caleb’s attention. He started bouncing in place, pleading for more with cries of: “Again!”

“You should ask 9S to play it with you,” said Henri, holding onto Caleb’s hand.

Caleb didn’t quite understand, so Henri turned him around until he was facing the android, and repeated himself: “Go ask 9S.”

The boy obeyed instantly. Without leaving his place near Henri’s leg, he pouted at 9S. “Nines! Play!”

That was all the toddler needed to make 9S melt.

Henri wasn’t sure if Caleb had called 9S by his nickname ‘Nines’ or if he’d just mispronounced ‘9S’, but the effect was powerful.

9S immediately took off the band covering his eyes. Caleb giggled, thinking it was the ‘reveal’ part of the game, only for 9S to cover his face with his hands.

“Where is Nines?” the android asked.

Chortling, Caleb moved closer to 9S.

“Where is he? Where did Nines go?”

Henri watched with an approving smile as 9S revealed his face, saying “Boo!”

Caleb smiled. “Again!” he ordered.

And so 9S did it again, and again, and again, until his partner 2B came looking for him, wondering where he’d gone.

 

 

 

 

 

-o-o-o-

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey, 2B!”

Max hurried after the android, who was just about to leave the camp. As he ran, he looked down to readjust his clothes and—

“Fuck!”

Max clutched his face, hoping he didn’t have a nosebleed.

Honestly, how could he be stupid enough to walk into a column? He’d been distracted, and now his face hurt. This was sure to bruise.

When he looked back up, he saw that 2B was politely waiting for him. He went over to her at a more sedate pace, patting his nose and face. Luckily, nothing was bleeding.

“Anything broken?” asked 2B.

Unlike other androids at the camp, she didn’t fuss over him. She was a lot more detached in general compared to other YoRHa operatives.

“It’s fine,” said Max, ignoring the pain he still felt. “Anyway, I wanted to talk because I heard that you and 9S have been going on a lot of missions lately.”

It was unnerving that he couldn’t see her heads because of the black band covering them. It made it harder to read her reactions.

“Yes,” said 2B. “There is a lot to be done.”

She didn’t make any effort to continue the conversation, which made things infinitely more awkward.

“Your pod, does it record everything you do?” he asked.

She gave a slow nod. “Certain parts are redacted after my reports, but yes, everything is recorded.”

“Well, you might not know this, but it can be difficult for Henri and I to be allowed out of the camp. There’s a lot of planning to be done, and we can’t go out too often. So I was hoping… Could it be possible to see some of those recordings, at some point? I wouldn’t want to see confidential stuff, just videos or images of the environment and things like that.”

There was a long pause that made Max fidget a little as he waited for an answer.

“I will ask for permission,” 2B finally said. “If my superiors agree, then there shouldn’t be any problem.”

Max beamed. “Ah, cool! I’ll leave you to your mission.”

He waved at her and headed back into the camp.

“Cool?” repeated 2B, puzzled.

 

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

 

The next day, Max woke when the bedroom’s light turned on automatically, going from a soft, barely visible yellow and turning brighter as time passed, until the room was completely lit an hour later. Since the Earth no longer had a day-and-night cycle, this system had been put in place to simulate dawn.

He yawned, careful to not make too much sound; Henri was still sleeping, after all. As for Caleb, the boy didn’t share a room with them. A special structure had been created for the toddler in a room where there were once storage boxes, with sound-proof walls so that if Caleb threw a tantrum, there wasn’t too high of a risk of him attracting attention from machine lifeforms.

Speaking of Caleb… According to initial plans, the boy had been meant to stay on Earth only a day or two before being sent back to the satellite base to check that all the vaccines were working correctly. However, concerns about too many drastic changes in atmospheric pressure had led the commander to decide it might be best to wait before sending Caleb back. As of today, it had been exactly one week since Max and the others had landed on Earth. There were tentative plans to send Caleb back into space in three or four days, so all the androids at the camp were spending as much time as possible around the boy.

At this rate, he’d probably end up spoiled. But hey, there were worse things to be.

Max picked up yesterday’s clothes and put them on. He winced a little when the collar of his top rubbed against his face as he pulled it down. His face still felt tender after yesterday’s collision.

He slipped on a pair of socks and shoes, and then gently opened the bedroom door to head outside, into the Resistance camp’s main area.

Since androids didn’t need to sleep, the rest of the camp was just as busy as always. Max headed towards Supply Trader with the intention of asking what was on the menu today, but was stopped midway by Jackass.

“What’s wrong with your skin?” she asked.

Max had no idea what she meant. Did he have a sunburn?

“… What d’you mean?” he asked.

Jackass came a little closer. She pulled her hood down and leaned near Max.

“Your face is covered in purple blotches,” she told him. “I have no idea what kind of damage could cause this. No inner components are this colour. Did you get splashed with a colourant?”

“No,” he answered, certain of that at least. Her comments made him want to seek a mirror. Had someone covered him in purple stuff while he slept as a prank?

Jackass put her hand on his face and rubbed at his cheekbone. He winced.

“Ow!”

But the pain also made him realise; Purple blotches... Didn’t she just mean he was bruised? The strange way she referred to it had made him think of something else, but he’d had a collision yesterday, so it was highly plausible that she was just reacting to a few bruises.

“We need to get you a replacement,” declared Jackass, her hand leaving his face. “You can’t go out looking like this. Come on, I know a guy who sells cheap skins. I don’t think he’s ever taken care of a human, but he should be able to find something that’ll work for you.”

Max took two steps away from her, suddenly afraid he might be literally skinned just because of a few unsightly bruises.

“Humans don’t work like that! We’re no androids, we only have one skin and it heals if it gets damaged!”

“Are you sure?” Jackass asked.

“Yes, I’m sure!”

She still wasn’t entirely convinced. “It might be best to have someone check you over just in case. Sometimes mould can get between skin areas and leave traces. Usually it’s in blue, black, white or green, not purple, but—”

“I’m fine!” he insisted. “The bruises will be gone in a few days! Humans are like animals; they don’t shed their skin!”

“But snakes—”

“Goodbye!” he exclaimed, running away from her.

 

 

 

-x-x-x-

 

 

 

By the time 2B came back from her mission, a few days later, the bruises on Max’s face were gone and Jackass had stopped pestering him about it.

It turned out 2B _did_ get permission from her superiors to display recordings of innocuous moments in her missions, all of them non-confidential. That was exciting news, because androids didn’t really have TV or any form of video-entertainment, so Max had been missing the days when you could easily watch something online.

2B was all right with showing the videos immediately, so Max ran off to get Henri, which turned into roping even more people into the venture. He came back to 2B with half of the camp, and the event turned into an impromptu movie viewing.

9S seemed very intent on sitting close to 2B and regularly made comments to her while watching the recordings being projected on a blank wall. Henri sat with Caleb on his lap, and would turn the child the other way whenever anything particularly violent showed up. A lot of Resistance scouts stayed to watch too.

Androids like Anemone, Jackass and a few traders passed by to see what was happening, but were too busy with logistics to stay and watch the recordings.

It was an interesting experience, to see what 2B and 9S did when they were out on missions. Max got to see them shooting at machines, travelling via rooftops through the crumbling city, travelling to Earth in a flight unit, sliding down sand dunes…

It was nostalgic, to see all that environment when Max had been stuck in space for so long. Just seeing plants, rivers and grassy plains felt amazing. It also reminded him of the times he’d just spend hours in front of a screen, watching online videos. There was something very nostalgic about it all.

It wasn’t perfect. The sun was shining a little too brightly for the projected recording to be as visible as it should be, some people were commenting a little too loudly on what was happening on the projection and there was no popcorn to be found, but it still felt nice.

Max still had the occasional moment where he’d feel a powerful burst of homesickness, of grief, at the idea of all he’d lost. But he was slowly learning to live in the present, to enjoy his current life instead of dwelling in what he no longer had.

Yes, things weren’t perfect, but they were _good_.

Sitting on the ground with a group of other people, being in the middle of a community and watching a movie… It felt nice. It felt a little bit like home.

 

  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If any of you are interested, I've also recently posted a Witcher fic called Lullaby of the Isles. It has three chapters so far, with a fourth to be posted this Saturday. Go take a look if you're familiar with the fandom.


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